Local medical personnel home from Haiti

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The Red Cross says there's a waiting list of 1,000 flights ready to carry relief supplies to Haiti. The agency says it's still busy meeting the basic food and water needs of the earthquake survivors. That's a story that three Hoosiers know - from personal experience.

Becky Blanton, retired nurse, "Unless you see it, it's difficult to believe it." A team of specialists saw hundreds of Haitian survivors, during a mission late last month.

Wishard Hospital paramedic, Mike Thralls, led the mission.  "We don't get to pick our disasters. But, we can respond to them." 

Thralls says even three weeks after the quake, they found buildings at risk of collapse and no end to the medical needs. "Those patients are still there. There are still people with infections. There are still people that have not been seen."

Mike's wife, Melanie, is also a paramedic and a nurse. "You see a lot of sick kids. But you don't usually see a lot of injured children, very frequently. It's pretty hard to see the little kids that are hurt a lot."

And, Melanie says, through all the difficulties, Melanie finds a reason to be optimistic."The good thing that stands out the most is how resilient the Haitians are, and they're already back to trying to get their lives back to normal."

More help is ready for Haiti.  Wednesday, the Salvation Army will be at Shenandoah Elementary School in Henry County. The students there collected about 6,000-dollars to help the relief effort.