1/14/2010

International Programs is helping coordinate the University of Iowa’s response to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti Sunday. While the International Student & Scholar Services has contacted UI’s Haitian students and Caribbean student groups, other offices are helping to get out the message about how the UI community can help those in need.

Volunteer physicians in the Carver College of Medicine are at the front lines. Dr. Christopher Buresh, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, and his colleagues already have a staging area set up near a collapsed hospital in Leogane, about 12 miles outside the capital, Port-au-Prince. UI doctors hope that their work in Leogane will help take some pressure off of hospitals and other health locations in the capital city. The water purifying units, medications, IV supplies, and fluids, they hope to address the most urgent medical needs. Ideally, these physicians will be able to go to Haiti in waves of teams so that there is some continuity in the immediate future.