Four weeks after the earthquake of January 12, 2010 devastated Haiti, we received word that we could take a group of volunteers to assist in the relief effort. Within five days, Kelly Reber and John Durham assembled 30 volunteers who joined the efforts of Project Medishare. This team included podiatrists, orthopedic surgeons, plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, ER physicians, intensivists, ICU and floor nurses, respiratory techs, physical therapists and social workers. We arrived late at night at an airport with no lights and unloaded the plane ourselves.

Project Medishare was one of the first groups to arrive in Port-au-Prince. Within 24 hours they had started assembling a tent hospital on the tarmac of the airport in Port-au-Prince. When we arrived we hit the ground running and immediately began helping care for victims. This was perhaps the most difficult trip with the proximity to the quake and its dramatic effects to the city and the populace. Team members struggled with the heat, humidity, aftershocks, and the difficulty of trying to provide quality care with extreme shortages of the needed supplies to do so.