A Report From Doctors Still On The Front

A team of Creighton doctors and nurses that returned from Haiti described a horrific scene but a scene they'd return to without hesitation."There was pain and suffering everywhere," said Dr. Tommy Lee. The team spoke to the media Wednesday afternoon.The tired group, Omaha's first team to the country after the earthquake, said its members pulled 15-hour days.Team members said they helped about 800 patients in 10 days. Between 20 and 30 percent of the patients were children, said Dr. Brian Loggie. Most of the care involved performing surgeries, amputations and dressing wounds.Loggie said the conditions upon their arrival were primitive. Medical supplies were limited. Amputations were being performed without narcotics."I mean it was Civil War, bite-the-bullet stuff," Loggie said.The group hit the ground running from the moment they got there, members said, but they still felt helpless before the crowds of injured."We would have patients back in the same rooms two to three minutes later ready to cut off more limbs," said nurse anesthetist Timothy Glidden. "It was something we've never seen."As conditions improved, the health of some victims didn't. Creighton nurse Theresa Keefe -- nicknamed Mother Theresa -- struggled with the huge number of suffering children."Crying out, crying out for help, in pain -- that was tough," Keefe said.Despite it all, they said they'd return."I don't know about tomorrow. I need some sleep. But we'd go back," Keefe said.