Published: March 02, 2010

For victims of the earthquake in Haiti, help is still on the way.

Retired ER physician Mark Hyslop is leaving Merritt today to join a medical team of eight Canadian volunteers who will help in the disaster zone.

Hyslop is going with the Canadian Medical Assessment Team (CMAT) in the fourth wave of the organization’s deployment of medical support.

For three weeks he will work at a make-shift hospital in Leogane, a town about 38 km (24 miles) west of Port-au-Prince.

The hospital is set up on a soccer field next to a tent city, and Hyslop expects that with the coming rainy season in Haiti, living conditions will not be ideal.

“It’s going to be rainy, muddy, dirty,” he said.

The team will be living in a very basic tent not far from the hospital.

“It’s going to be a real camp-out experience,” he said. “They say there’s chickens running through the medical tent and there’s blood everywhere. But I guess that’s the way it goes when you’re working in disaster situations; things are a mess.”

Hyslop is the only physician on the team.

The rest of the crew is made up of nurses, paramedics and other medical personnel.

They will fly to Toronto first, then Miami, and finally on to Haiti on American Airlines, the only airline still making trips into Haiti.

When the CMAT team arrives, they will be taking over from team three.

“This is going to be their last team on this deployment because they’re not seeing so much of the trauma related to the earthquake anymore,” he said.

“Now they’re looking at just the last little bits of wound management that need some follow-up. Now they’re starting to see some primary care issues with paediatrics and respiratory infections.”

Hyslop said he has had his shots and has been taking malaria medication to prepare for his trip.

He has not practised medicine for five years, but said this type of volunteer experience is exactly what he has been looking for.

With a Masters in Conflict Analysis/Management from Royal Roads in Victoria, Hyslop has combined his 25 years of emergency medicine with his degree to be able to help out with organizations like CMAT.

He applied as soon as the earthquake struck, and was accepted to go this month with team four.

Both Hyslop and his wife Margaret are proponents of volunteerism, both at home and abroad.

They are members of the Merritt Social Planning Committee and volunteer with the Community Policing Office.

And with more than 4,000 NGOs in the world, the Hyslops know there are many avenues to help out all over the world.

“There’s no lack of choice when it comes to helping out in third-world countries,” said Margaret.

Though the medical team going to Haiti will be the final wave of Canadians going with CMAT, Mark Hyslop said the people of Haiti will continue to need help for a very long time.

The January 12 earthquake measured 7.3 on the Richter scale and left about 230,000 people dead.

For the survivors, there will be much rebuilding to be done.

“It’s not just medical people they need right now,” he said. “It could also be helping to establish programs at the hospital or curriculum for education, or school work, governance issues... there’s lots of opportunities.”

Other aid agencies will be in Haiti for some time to establish roads, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure.

Anyone who has trades skills would be needed as well, said Hyslop.

CMAT is a Canadian-based grassroots disaster relief organization made up of medical professionals and non-medical volunteers who donate their time and resources to provide relief aid to victims of natural and man-made disasters around the world. All volunteers cover their own costs.