UI doctors to help build Haiti hospital

A group of emergency medicine physicians from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics say they're determined to help rebuild a better Haiti, including a new 50-bed hospital in the city of Leogane, just outside of Port-au-Prince.

“If we didn't make things better than they were then we've missed a tremendous opportunity,” said Dr. Christopher Buresh, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Buresh and his medical team will travel to Haiti again next week to help in building the hospital and “to take care of folks who are really sick.”

It's the first step in providing Haitians throughout that region with access to quality health care.

“It's really going to make a difference,” said Dr. Dan Wing, a second-year resident in emergency medicine at UIHC. “It's a temporary structure but it's going to be temporary for five to six years.”

Workers also are training Haitian medical teams to care for their own.

“Our groups are working a lot with nursing students teaching them how to dress amputations, care for these wounds, do stitches, how to put on casts, and things like that,” Buresh said, noting those basic medical techniques can save lives.

“As a team we can make a difference, and it's going to be a team effort long-term,” Wing said.

Jami Brinton, KCRG-TV