A post-earthquake trip to Haiti turned out to be a gut-wrenching, eye-opening experience for Dr. Robert Pace, who has provided surgical and orthopedic services in the Murrieta and Fallbrook areas for more than three decades.

Pace said he prepared for his first trip to Haiti by getting briefed by other doctors who had journeyed to the island country before it was ripped by a devastating earthquake early this year.

"It was going to be different this time," Pace said in recent telephone interview. "They said it would be like a war zone."

Pace, who works out of Fallbrook Hospital, encountered countless orthopedic injuries when he arrived at a remote clinic operated by a De Luz-based nonprofit group. But simply getting there was half the battle.

Pace equated Haiti’s main highways to the steep, rutted dirt roads that bisect avocado and citrus groves that dot much of southwest Riverside County and Northern San Diego County.

"We traveled 47 miles in five hours, stopping only once for about five minutes," Pace recalled. He said the United Nations security squad that accompanied them on their overland journey noted that it had stopped three lynching attempts during its escort missions.

At the clinic, the team encountered about 20 people suffering femoral fractures. That caseload represented 40 hours of immediate work for just one team. Pace treated open tibia and femoral fractures that had occurred when people were crushed by falling cinder-block walls.

"There were too many orthopedic injuries for any single organization to handle," said Pace. A woman with an above-the-knee bilateral compartment syndrome had to have a leg amputated. Pace and his team then went on to perform two below-the-knee amputations while in Haiti.

Pace said he was also struck by the dedication and professionalism of the teams of volunteers and the immense suffering that his patients had already endured.

"I appreciated the patience of these people, many of whom had lain in bed with minimal help for 13 days, waiting for someone to do something," said Pace.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked the island on Jan. 12, as well as numerous major aftershocks, killed more than 150,000 people and left about 1.5 million people homeless.

The medical team also included anesthesiologist Paul Phelps, trauma surgeon Mathew Wilson, and Walt Combs, a general practitioner.

Combs is affiliated with the Temecula-based Rancho Family Medical Group. He has traveled to Haiti about 40 times over the past 14 years as a volunteer primary care physician.

Combs, Pace and others traveled to Haiti as part of the efforts of Haiti Endowment Fund, which was launched more than two decades ago by a retired De Luz minister and his wife. Combs said his Haiti experiences have left his mark on his life. The nonprofit group’s clinic is based Haitian city of Hinche.

"From the first time I was Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] there, I was completely hooked and could not help but return," said Combs, who helped organized a team of his physician colleagues from Fallbrook Hospital.

What they found in Hinche was so devastating that Combs describes it as a thousand times worse than anything he had ever seen before.

"It was as if I was going to Haiti for the first time," he said. "I didn’t even recognize it."

The Haiti Endowment Fund feeds 3,000 children daily at its 35-acre compound. It also provides vitamins and anti-parasite medications and it has a well-digging program to help lessen health issues related to consumption and use of dirty water.

There is also a 250-bed hospital in Hinche, which was the destination for the Fallbrook team. Pace said that hospital is similar in size to Fallbrook Hospital, which has just 50 beds and has far better lighting, climate controls, ventilation and sanitation.

"It was dark, dingy with huge wards," Pace said of the Hinche hospital. "It’s just cot to cot to cot."

Complicating matters was the delayed arrival of most of the Fallbrook team’s equipment. Constant adaptation and resourcefulness were crucial. Team members borrowed supplies from other volunteers and utilized whatever they could find to carry out their mission.

Bottled water was used in the operating rooms. Sterilization procedures were performed with chemicals and the team’s carpenter built a special table to assist doctors as they applied large casts on children.

Fortunately, some of the equipment donated by Fallbrook Hospital did arrive in time. It included an external fixating device, which addressed compound tibia fractures and is still being used in Hinche.

"One of the experiences that stands out for me involved two children who were at the Hinche hospital with absolutely no care since the earthquake two weeks prior," said Combs. The children, age 2 and 11, had lost their parents and traveled to Hinche by themselves for help.

After all of his previous trips to Haiti, Combs was deeply affected by this experience.

"It is very difficult to come home to our lifestyle, with all of our comforts, when your mind flashes back constantly to the children we left behind – laying on cots, in a hot, humid, dirty hospital," he said.

The Fallbrook team members know they saved lives and alleviated suffering, but they also know their work was just beginning.

"This is going to be a long-term problem for the people of Haiti; there will be need for continuous help down the line for these injured people," Pace said. "Amputations, infected joints, fractures – these all require chronic help."

Combs said he is now forming new teams for future relief missions to Haiti.

"As a physician, I cannot imagine anything more rewarding than to serve suffering people in this way," he said. "It is therapeutic to know you are doing something."