Injured children fill Haiti's streets

TAMPA - A team of Bay Area doctors has just returned from helping in Haiti, and they say the needs there are staggering.

The doctors are volunteering with the group Hearts Afire, a missionary group based in Sarasota.

Dr. Claudia Mallarino and Dr. Guillermo Villalona just arrived back from Haiti. They treated hundreds of children, and didn't sleep for four days.

"You cannot even think about or describe the suffering these people are going through. The help is slowly getting there, but it's not there," Dr. Mallarino said.

The doctors shot video while they were there, and the scenes are difficult to see: entire streets are now triage centers lined with dozens of injured children. They treated everything from head traumas to open fractures, with no end in sight.

"The task in front of us is intense. We need medical supplies, we need medical personnel. The people on the ground now is tired, so we need fresh, fresh personnel to work on them," Dr. Villalona said.

They say only smaller relief groups, like theirs, have been able to get in and make a difference so far, and they're hoping the community will give them the tools they need, to continue helping the injured.

"We need money, we need help, we need fuel, we need medicines. And we need it quick, because we want to save these people," Mallarino said.

Hearts Afire has teams of doctors, surgeons and nurses ready to go, as soon as planes are available. They already have another mission planned for Friday.

Emotionally, they are drained

But saythey say they will go back as often, and as long as they are needed.

Right now, they can buy medical supplies and fuel for the planes, but they need money to be able to keep doing so. They plan to go every week, and say pilots have been giving their time as well.