State teams being deployed to Haiti

Six UNM physicians join a 23-member New Mexico Disaster Medical Assistance Team (NM DMAT) in a two-week deployment to Haiti beginning this Friday, February 12. UNM DMAT members include specialists in emergency medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.

NM DMAT will augment an International Medical Surgical Response Team (IMSuRT) – a specialized unit of highly trained personnel equipped to establish a fully capable, free-standing field surgical facility anywhere in the world. The combined IMSuRT unit, the fourth such group to rotate into Haiti, expects to be operational by Saturday. Byron Piatt, UNM’s Emergency Manager and NM DMAT Team Commander, will lead the joint unit.

Approximately 200 volunteers from around the state comprise the NM DMAT, but typically about 35 team members are assigned to a disaster response. Team members include physicians, nurses, pharmacists and emergency medical technicians, as well as administrative, security, safety, logistics and communications personnel.

Since its inception, NM DMAT has responded to terrorist attacks, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and fires.