Courtesy William Haun

Demoiny treats a young resident of Jacmel, a port town in the south of Haiti.

“I have been sitting at the Jacmel Aerodrome for over a day waiting for a small Cessna to take me back to Santo Domingo, before heading home to Philadelphia … part of me cannot wait to go home … but a big part of me also wants to stay and continue the work that I have been a part of here.”

So begins a letter from Sebastien Demoiny, a fourth-year podiatric surgery resident at the School of Podiatric Medicine and Temple University Hospital, to his family as he accompanied a relief team to provide wound care and surgical care to displaced residents of Haiti.

Demoiny said he and his team did not see any signs of the devastation that awaited them until just a few hundred yards from the airport.

“Schools, churches, stores, and homes were completely destroyed,” he said. “One thing that was immediately noticeable was all of the tents lining the sidewalks. One site had almost 4,000 people living in a giant tent city in an old soccer field.”

Demoiny and his team set up a clinic in their hotel in the southern Haiti port town of Jacmel the very first day, treating almost 350 people. Over the course of the week that they were there, the team saw more than 1,000 patients.

Demoiny said, as a podiatrist, he at first felt a little unsure of how his skills might be helpful. But his medical specialty came in handy on a number of cases. In addition, Demoiny is fluent in French, which helped bridge the communication barrier between patient and doctor.

“I got all the wounds, abscesses and extremity problems, but I also treated a lot of patients with asthma, diarrhea, malaria and stomach aches,” he said. “There had been so much dust since the earth quake that people were having a lot of respiratory issues and irritated eyes.”

After the earthquake hit, Demoiny said he felt an immediate need to go and help, but was unsure how to go about it. He received a call from an old friend, William Haun, who was planning to head to Haiti with a non-profit group called Haiti Helpers, who asked if he’d like to join them.

“This is a group that has been going to Haiti for the past 10 years, so when William called me, I immediately jumped at the opportunity,” he said.

Demoiny said he was struck by how happy and alive the Hatian people are, despite the devastation of their country. Some nights after the clinic was closed, he said, members of the team went into the giant tent city to play soccer and jump rope with some of the children.

“We were so amazed at how many smiles we saw,” he said. “Every person in this area was affected by the earthquake in some way, yet they were so full of life and joy. Music filled the streets in the evenings, and the people were so grateful for our service.”

Demoiny said he plans to go back later this year, because there is still a huge amount of work to be done there. “The people here have a long difficult road ahead of them, and I am humbled to have been a small part of the massive relief effort taking place all over Haiti,” he said.