IAEM Members provide humanitarian aid to earthquake striken Haiti

The 12th January 2010 earthquake which caused such loss of life and devastation to the already impoverished Caribbean island country of Haiti provoked a national and international humanitarian response. As ever, Irish professionals were to the fore in the response.

Two members of the Association, Drs Sinead O'Gorman and Michael Sweeney, Consultants in Emergency Medicine at Letterkenny and Sligo General Hospitals respectively, travelled to Haiti in late January 2010 as part of the initial GOAL humanitarian response. Their involvement was to provide Emergency Medicine expertise to those who have been injured in the incident. As the two northwest based Consultants in Emergency Medicine prepared to return, they were joined by Dr Paul Kelly, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Wexford General & Waterford Regional Hospitals who travelled with a contingent from Merlin.

Dr Sweeney's reflections on his experience in Haiti including some pictures from his three weeks there are available in an article here.

A further Association member, Dr Michael Molloy, an Irish Emergency Medicine trainee then on an Disaster Medicine Fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, Boston, USA was involved in co-ordinating that hospital's team in its response to the Haiti earthquake.

Photo: Dr Sinead O'Gorman, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Letterkenny General Hospital prior to her departure to Haiti on 22nd January 2010.

Photo: Dr Michael Sweeney, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Sligo General Hospital at the GOAL offices in Dun Laoghaire prior to his departure to Haiti on 24th January 2010.

Photo: Dr Paul Kelly, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Wexford General & Waterford Regional Hospitals (Right) receiving a handover from colleague Dr Michael Sweeney at their makeshift clinic in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on 11th February 2010