Holy Redeemer Hospital team headed to Haiti

About two dozen doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals from six local hospitals are heading to Haiti this weekend for a mission to help save lives.

The team from Holy Redeemer Hospital includes surgeons Dr. Beth Dupree and Shashi Kumar and Lisa Sullivan, an OR nurse.

It's Lisa's first medical mission.

But for the Blue Sky Surgical Team, this is an annual trip.

At the Double Harvest Clinic, just outside Port-au-Prince, they'll work with a local medical team performing operations such as hernia repair and tumor removal.

Dr. Dupree says the surgeries aren't too complicated, but for the patients, they can be life-changing.

The experience for the traveling team has a similar effect.

"I've always said if a physician or nurse has lost their way, sign up for a medical mission and you'll find your way back to why you went into healthcare because trips like this do more for us than we could do for the people of Haiti," Dr. Dupree said.

"I said this is an opportunity I can't pass up. For me, all things happen for a reason and everything fell into place," Sullivan said.

In past years, Dr. Dupree has blogged about the experience.

This year, she'll be doing some live Facebook chats.

We'll check in with her next week.