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Team of NW doctors return from Haiti

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by MIMI JUNG / KING 5 News

Posted on February 9, 2010 at 7:01 PM

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SEATTLE - In a remote village, 200 miles from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, they describe the desperation: hundreds of people standing outside for hours, some of them walking up to 30 miles, just to see a doctor.

"All of a sudden, I was sitting there at a table, and there's just hundreds of people standing there and all these moms clutching their babies wanting to get up to the line, cut in line so they could get... make sure their kids got taken care of," said Karianna Wilson.

Wilson is one of 14 people with Northwest Physicians Network who just returned home after treating nearly 900 people in Haiti. The team worked out of an abandoned school house in Plaine du Nord without water or power.

Despite the devastation, the team says they'll never forget witnessing the will to survive and the joy among the children.

"They sang for us and they were just kids and they were living in horrible circumstances of makeshift houses, but they were happy kids," said Wilson.

Dr. Stan Flemming, chief medical officer for Northwest Physicians Network, was one of the eight doctors who volunteered his time.

"These wounds they have are very traumatic and painful, yet the girl that we were taking care of never wimpered, never cried, anything," said Flemming.

For these Haitians, they're happy and grateful.

"That's the day they got free healthcare. Because some of these people would not have seen a doctor for years and they won't see another doctor for years," said Wilson.

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trojan33 said on February 13, 2010 at 3:15 PM

The guy that went with them to provide security, a fomer FBI agent, was arrested in a ransom scheme and spent three days in jail.

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