HAITI -- Sunday, KTVB got an update on the situation in Haiti straight from a staffer at St. Damien's Children's Hospital.
Assistant National Director Robin Schwartz works at St. Damien's and has been pretty much working around the clock.
"We have probably over 100 volunteer doctors or nurses here right now," said Schwartz. "So people are sleeping on the roof of our guest house, people are sleeping on the sidewalks, some are sleeping in tents."
Schwartz helps facilitate all the volunteers and the funding coming from donations through St. Alphonsus.
She said things now seem to be calming down, but many Haitians still live with fear of another earthquake.
"I hear outside in the city that most people are not sleeping in their homes because they don't know the stability of their homes, which started the groups congregating in different areas.” Schwartz said in an interview over Skype. “Even here in the hospital we had our building assessed. But we had to convince our staff that it was okay to come in and work. We had to convince parents that it was okay to bring their children back inside."
Schwartz said normally the hospital only treats children, but since the earthquake hit they've treated everyone.
And they've been able to do that with less than half of their normal staff.
"We still have three surgery rooms with rotating teams going 24 hours a day," Schwartz said. "We've probably done about 130 surgeries here." Schwartz said 70 of those surgeries have been amputations.
She said many of her staff have lost their homes, or can't get to the hospital because they don't have gas.
She also said some people are leaving Haiti for the Dominican Republic, and others are trying to get to the U.S.
But those who stayed behind continue searching for loved ones and survival stories are still being heard.
"I heard that one of the super markets, the largest super market in Delman had collapsed,” Schwartz said. “And they thought for sure everyone had perished. And yesterday text messages were coming up from that building. The people were okay and they were eating the food inside the building. I couldn't believe it, it's a miracle."
Schwartz said supplies are coming in, but it's taking time.
"I don't think shipments are being brought into the port yet because I think there's still issues with landing into the port in Port-au-Prince," she said. "But things are coming out of the airport now."
We asked Schwartz about the two that lost their lives during the earthquake. She said she knew them and called one of them her little sister.
"That's actually made it really difficult because I struggle everyday," said Schwartz. "The way I would get through the days, before any of this happened, is I relied a lot on Erin (Kloos of Arizona) and Molly (Hightower of Washington). And we relied on each other and now the two of them are gone. So I've often felt kind of very alone."
According to the Friends of the Orphans volunteer organization where the women worked, Erin Kloos survived the quake with injuries. But her brother Ryan Kloos, who was visiting, died along with Molly Hightower.
She said she misses her friends all the time and any day she can get through without crying is a good one.
Schwartz has heard people say it will take months to get things back to normal, but she thinks it will be years.
"There's a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done in general here, in the city and in Haiti," said Schwartz.
Schwartz said a sign that things are getting back to normal is that they've started sending out their mobile clinics into the community. Schwartz said there's a lot of people in rural areas that have yet to be helped.
St. Damien's has also partnered with other hospitals to find the best care for those injured.
