Two more teams of Delaware doctors, nurses and other health care workers will travel to Haiti this week to lend a hand with ongoing efforts to aid victims of last month's earthquake.

On Tuesday night, team members and other volunteers gathered at First State Surgery Center in Stanton to pack medication, bandages, surgical equipment and other supplies. A group including doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, a medical student and a pharmacist are expected to leave today for the coastal city of Jacmel. There, the 17-member team will continue the efforts of a 21-member medical relief team that spent a week treating thousands of patients on the streets and in a makeshift clinic.

"It will be in the same clinic because we kind of established a relationship with the people there," said Dr. Chetana Kripalu, who helped organize both trips and is a member of the second team. "We didn't want to go somewhere else to take another team because, while we want to help people, everybody asks about security and apparently the previous team said that's not an issue there [in Jacmel]."

Cars backed up to the front door of the surgery center to allow volunteers to unload boxes and bags stuffed with supplies. Inside, luggage was piled in a corner. Dozens of crutches stood against one wall. Next to them was a carton full of air casts and braces. Groups of volunteers sorted medicine and equipment. Items such as gauze and over-the-counter medication were removed from their packaging and placed in labeled plastic bags to cram as much as possible into the limited space available in the team's luggage.

Organizers hope the Jacmel trips will continue for at least the next six months. They created a "wish list" of items for use on this trip and by subsequent teams of Delaware health care workers. The team's needs run the gamut from mosquito netting, sleeping bags and walkie-talkies to sutures and suture removal kits, trauma shears, tourniquets and small toys to calm young patients.

"There are some logistic issues we really need to work out and have in place if we are going to send continuously," Kripalu said. "I don't know when the [third] team is leaving. Each time, we have to really see how the situation is and it keeps changing there. It's hard to tell when we're going to send another team, but there definitely will be more teams."

Travel difficult

Haiti's airports and roads were seriously damaged by the earthquake, making travel a significant challenge. The first Delaware relief team had to travel to Jacmel via a circuitous route that included flying into the Dominican Republic and then taking a boat to Haiti. The second team will fly to the Dominican Republic, then travel by bus to Jacmel.

"We can treat people like we do here, except the number of patients you see will be much more," Kripalu said. "And you cannot have enough [supplies]. That's always there. No matter how much you carry, there's never enough medicine for people because it's ongoing." Medical student Patti Hansen will celebrate her 25th birthday while caring for patients in Jacmel. She contacted trip organizers after seeing stories in The News Journal about the first team's journey to Jacmel. Her father, Kevin Hansen, is also part of the team. The two spent Tuesday gathering donated medical supplies and clothing collected by student groups at Thomas Jefferson University, where Patti is in her third year of study.

"I went to Nepal two years ago. I was teaching English, but I became the resident doctor for the school. I've seen how medicine is done in a Third World country," said Patti Hansen, a Glasgow High School and University of Delaware graduate. "This I expect to be worse -- more like a war zone than a Third World country."

A geophysicist and filmmaker from Albuquerque, N.M., Kevin Hansen will support the Jacmel medical team by "keeping the water running and the power on." "I feel like my purpose in life is to do the best I can to help people in the world," Kevin Hansen said. "I don't want to do other things, I want to do those things. Clearly the Haiti situation is in desperate need of all the help we can provide."

Nemours gets involved

As the Jacmel team packed in Delaware, 12 health care workers from the Nemours health system were preparing to fly from Miami to Haiti. The team includes nine from the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Rockland. Working in partnership with Miami Children's Hospital and a nonprofit organization called Project Medishare, the team will staff a field tent clinic at the airport in Port-au-Prince.

"Everybody was trying to rush down there, and our executive team was just as committed. But we weren't sending a Nemours team unless we knew they were safe," said Cathleen Rossi-McLaughlin, an incident command leader at the duPont Hospital who helped to organize the trip. "When I got the final permission on Friday at 2 p.m., it was when Miami Children's told me that the pediatric tent is situated with the Israeli army on one side and the U.S. Army on the other."

Staff at the duPont hospital worked around the clock last weekend to make travel arrangements, gather medical and other supplies and ensure all of the relief workers had the required inoculations.

One of the biggest challenges was arranging for a last-minute flight and hotel rooms for Miami. The relief team had to be in Florida by Monday evening to be debriefed at Miami Children's Hospital, but many seats and rooms were booked due to the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl being held there. The team traveled to Miami with dozens of bags and three cartons full of supplies including eye ointments, angiocaths, syringes and tubing.

"When we walked up to the US Airways counter at 7 a.m. yesterday we had a whole group with duffel bags. ... We looked like a caravan," Rossi-McLaughlin said. "I said, 'This is a medical crew going to Haiti' and they waived all of the baggage charges. We were extremely grateful for that. We paid for the flights but all of the baggage, all of the medical supplies went gratis. That was hundreds of dollars."

Ties to Haiti

Members of the Nemours team have previous experience providing medical care in Guatemala, Africa and the Dominican Republic. Team member Dr. Edward Cullen, a pediatric critical care specialist who lives in Hockessin, has worked in medical clinics in Haiti. "With those different connections, it was just natural that I'd like to take care of kids who really don't have anything," Cullen said.

The Nemours team was told they would begin working in the airport field tent soon after stepping off the plane, immediately taking over for the previous group of volunteers.

"From what we heard, the USNS Comfort is right there. I'm retired Air Force and I've seen it and it's an unbelievable ship. Your intensive critical care is done on the Comfort," Rossi-McLaughlin said. "The pediatric tent is about 70 children and the goal is mainly to get them in, treat them and get them out as quickly and safely as possible. ... It's a lot of wound care and a lot of nutrition, as far as dehydration."

Hundreds of health care workers at Nemours have volunteered to join subsequent relief trips to Haiti. Rossi-McLaughlin said she already put together a second 12-member team to make the trip after the first group returns.

"We're going to do our best to help with the problems there," Cullen said. "You'd be surprised about how much you get out of being able to help in this kind of situation. It's an opportunity, and it's great to be able to do this."

Additional Facts

HOW TO HELP THOSE GOING TO HAITI

Organizers of Delaware medical relief efforts in Jacmel, Haiti, have issued a wish list of items they can use on the trip departing today and on subsequent rotations.

Drop-off sites include First State Surgery, 1000 Twin C Lane, Suite 200, Stanton; or 2102 Wind Lane, Wilmington.

Cash donations or checks made payable to Delaware Medical Relief Team Fund may be dropped off or mailed to Premier Physicians, 410 Foulk Road, Suite 200B, Wilmington DE 19803.

Items on the wish list include: