Alumni return to Haiti
Posted: June 29, 2011
Aaron Davis, D.O., ’08, Wichita, Kan., returned to the earthquake ravaged Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in February 2011 as part of a continued relief effort to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Haiti. He was accompanied by fellow ATSU-KCOM graduate Maryclaire O’Neill ,D.O., ’08, a Family and Community Medicine resident at the University of New Mexico, in conjunction with Heart to Heart International.
In 2010, Drs. Davis and O’Neill teamed with Heart to Heart International alongside a contingent of fellow doctors, nurses, and EMTs to establish a health clinic in Port-au- Prince. “The destruction was utter – their entire culture is gone: schools, hospitals, the government, everything,” Dr. Davis said. “The people sleep on the ground and drink out of puddles. We saw patients in the clinic or went out to the tent cities, trying to treat as many people as we could in a day. Some people just want to know why they wake up screaming. I can tell you I have never seen anything like it in my life.”
A year later, 1 million Haitians remain internally displaced, malnourished, and suffering from cholera and other ailments. In February Dr. Davis returned to the clinic he helped start, located in Belaire, Port-au-Prince, for two weeks of around-the-clock medical aid.
To support Drs. Davis and O’Neill, please visit mc-and-aaron-for-haiti.blogspot.com to donate and to follow their blog posts. For more information about Heart to Heart, visit hearttoheart.org.
About Drs. O’Neill, Davis:
Dr. O’Neill works at the UNM South East Heights clinic, which serves populations from around the world and is home to a refugee clinic. She serves patients from Africa, the Middle East, Vietnam, Nepal, Eastern Europe, and Central and South America. She is grateful for the opportunity to provide care for the people of Haiti in their homeland.
Dr. Aaron Davis is a full-scope family medicine resident at Wesley Family Medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita, Kan. His clinical focus is maternal and child health, and he is active in the full scope of medicine, public health, and providing medical care to the underserved.