A statement from Mark Hyman, MD

The horrors in Haiti hit me deeply and the call for doctors, surgeons and medical supplies to treat the hundreds of thousands of wounded pushed me into action.

There are few times in our lives when we can contribute to something larger than ourselves. Now felt like one of those times for me.

My wife, Dr. Pier Boutin, and I woke up the Thursday morning after the quake and knew we had to go to Haiti right away. Within 24 hours our medical team—including my father-in-law, who is also an orthopedic surgeon; a nurse anesthetist; a critical-care nurse; and two Haitian intensive-care doctors working at Mount Sinai in New York—were on a loaned private plane and just hours later, miraculously, were on the ground. We were accompanied on our mission by Dr. Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners In Health, and two of his associates: Claire Pierre, a physician born and raised in Haiti; and a student of Farmer’s in his Global Health and Inequities program Harvard.

We landed amid chaos—no immigration, no customs—and were greeted instead by tears of relief and hope from the local Partners In Health volunteers, who had lost family, friends and co-workers. We unpacked the plane and loaded up three trucks full of supplies and slowly wound our way through the rubble and despair.

At the largest hospital in the country, the General Hospital, we were greeted by the director, Dr. Lassegue. We put on our headlamps and set about preparing to triage. We worked in conditions that I describe as approximating Civil War medicine. We had little more than a few bottles of alcohol and hand tools to operate with because supplies were not available to us.

By the end of the first marathon day, we went to sleep on the cement floor of the operating room, thankful, peaceful and exhausted but grateful to be here.

My wife, father-in-law and I are committed to serving the people of Haiti in whatever manner we can in this unimaginable time. I am also committed to helping document it in the media so that others can know the enormity of this disaster and add to the healing efforts through donations. To help rebuild the main hospital in Port au Prince and support the Haitians to reclaim their lives and their place, please donate where the greatest need is now, through Partners in Health (www.pih.org).

Dr. Hyman in the media on Haiti

See the "60 Minutes" interview
Read Dr. Hyman’s Huffington Post Blog