An emergency room doctor at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage embarked Wednesday on a mercy mission to earthquake- devastated Haiti.
Dr. Raul Ruiz, a Palm Desert resident, flew Wednesday morning from Van Nuys Airport to Miami. Now, he is waiting to catch a flight to Port-au-Prince.
"My heart breaks every minute I'm not there," Ruiz said as he prepared to leave.
Ruiz, who hopes to be in Haiti by Friday, will bring $10,000 worth of supplies that the hospital pledged to the relief effort.
"It's going to be an ongoing supply chain from the Coachella Valley to the organizations that I work with in Haiti," Ruiz said.
Ruiz will bring antibiotics, gauze, bandages, splits and plasters for broken bones, surgical supplies and pain medication.
"There are people who are dying in the waiting rooms from open fractures because we don't have enough orthopedic surgeons," Ruiz said, adding that people are also dying from septic shock, "which makes my urgency even more to get there, where I can help with at least wound management and stabilizing fractures and resuscitating patients."
The doctor will be reuniting and working alongside his mentor, Dr. Paul Farmer, the U.N. deputy special envoy to Haiti.
"I haven't seen Paul Farmer for many years, but he knows I'm coming and I'm going to collaborate with Partners in Health to strategize on how we can all work together," Ruiz said.
Ruiz is qualified to provide aid in the disaster zone because of a fellowship with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. He has also worked in Mexico with Partners in Health, which has operated in Haiti for more than 20 years.
Partners in Health has been designated by the World Health Organization to coordinate relief efforts from the central hospital in Port-au-Prince, according to the organization's Web site.
