The UNM community is responding to the earthquake in Haiti with on-the-ground support.
The New Mexico Disaster Medical Assistance Team sent 23 doctors — six from University Hospital — to Haiti for a two-week deployment. UNM DMAT members include specialists in emergency medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology, according to a press release.
Michael Richards, chairman of the UNM Department of Emergency Medicine, said the DMAT team will work in Port-au-Prince — Haiti’s capital — with a mobile surgical facility that has same accessibility and resources as any hospital.
“We are going with a 20-member surgical team from across the country. We’ll be rotating on a 24-hour-a-day system,” Richards said. “Individuals will be sleeping in tents with no electricity or running water.”
In a phone interview Friday, Richards said he and his team are prepared for the response.
“We identified our team for any deployment weeks before the earthquake,” Richards said. “It takes months of training to prepare anyone for the environment, but someone with experience in a disaster zone is the best, and we have a strong team with a healthy mix of experience and training.”
Of the six doctors, only UNM physicians Nancy Kurt and Joe Sparlon will be working in a disaster zone for the first time.
“Nancy has experience with an international medical responder’s unit, so she should be prepared for the stress and high intensity we will face,” Richards said.
NM DMAT is part of the National Disaster Medical System.
Richards said the team averages one deployment a year and responds to terrorist attacks, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and floods.
“We were at the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina and worked directly with the citizens of New Orleans in their time of distress,” Richards said.
The group is federally funded but was initially sponsored by UNM’s executive vice president of the Health Sciences Center Paul Roth.
“It was one of the first in the nation at the time,” Richards said.
About 200 volunteers from around the state comprise the NM DMAT, according to a news release from the group, but typically about 35 team members are assigned to a disaster response. Team members include physicians, nurses, pharmacists and emergency medical technicians, as well as administrative, security, safety, logistics and communications personnel.
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