Source & Credit: This is Leicestershire | Leicester Mercury
January 30, 2010
Two paramedics have helped treat more than 1,000 survivors of the Haiti earthquake this week.
Mark Bryers and Kalpesh Diyar, trauma care specialists with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, are part of a nine-strong team of British physicians, paramedics and surgeons who left the UK on Saturday.
The Humanity First UK medical team (HFUK) flew to Miami, where they met up with US and Canadian medics before traveling to the Dominican Republic.
They arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Sunday after an arduous journey which was "beset with vehicle breakdowns and other difficulties," a fire service spokesman said yesterday.
Mark, 46, and Kalpesh, 42, along with the rest of the team, are moving between Port-au-Prince and Carrefour administering post-operative care, especially for amputees.
They are treating infected open fractures and giving help to people who suffer with chronic conditions, such as asthma and diabetes.
On Monday, the team dealt with 200 cases, largely involving infected fractures and wounds.
Numbers have built up over the past few days and the team has now treated more than 1,000 patients in Carrefour.
The Mercury has not been able to contact the team in Haiti, but a fire service spokesman said: "Though working flat out dealing with the effects of the earthquake, they are safe and well and in good spirits."
Mr Diyar, a trauma care instructor with the fire service, also helped after the 2003 Turkish and the 2001 Indian earthquakes.
He said before he left. "On the television, you get a two-dimensional picture of what the camera sees.
"When you land you've got a 360-degree view of disaster, along with the sounds and the smells." They are due to return to Leicester next Friday.
Haitian communications minister Marie-Laurence Lassengue recently said more than 150,000 bodies had so far been collected.
However, this figure does not include outlying towns such as Jacmel, Gressier and Leogane or those still buried under the rubble.
The official toll of the dead and missing is likely to rise beyond 200,000.
Humanity First medical director Shahnawaz Rashid is co-ordinating the HFUK team from the charity's base in London.
He said: "There is still a great need for medical assistance in Haiti.
"However, the requirement is shifting in the next week from surgical to public health and the management of pre-existing chronic conditions.
"We expect to be working to help prevent or contain diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid and tetanus."
Read here: Medic pair help injured in Haitian disaster zone
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