title: Disaster relief: helping the survivors of the Haiti earthquake.
abstract: Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Sea. On January 12, the country was the site of an earthquake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, with the epicentre about 16 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake caused widespread loss of life and damage, and many organisations responded to appeals from the Haitian people for humanitarian aid. Among these was the UK-based charity Merlin. Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust emergency nurse Deb Lau works for Merlin and here she describes what happened when she travelled to Haiti to help provide medical relief.
authors.affiliation: Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
authors.forename: Deb
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lau
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D016529:Emergency Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004739:England; D006205:Haiti; D006801:Humans; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D012066:Relief Work / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017741:Survivors