A Dallas plastic surgeon returned to North Texas from Haiti on Monday, after helping to save many lives in the aftermath of the earthquake.
"When this happened, something just started burning inside of me, and I just started looking for ways to get down there," Dr. Craig Hobar said.
Hobar hitched a ride with some other Dallas physicians and arrived in Port-Au-Prince the Saturday following the devastating earthquake.
"When you get there and you see the reality of all these crushed buildings and all these homeless people and all these kids without help and all these critical injuries, and you know you're going to help some of them, but you know a lot of them are going to die from things they shouldn't die from, it's overwhelming," he said.
Hobar spend two days in Haiti, performing amputations and other procedures.
"We couldn't do nearly all the things we wanted to do," he said.
Nearly 20 years ago, Hobar founded the nonprofit LEAP Foundation, or Life Enhancement Association for People, a medical mission group now organizing teams of plastic surgeons from across the country to help out in Haiti.
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"I think it will probably take a minimum of six months to get all these backlogs of patients that are needed reconstructive surgery, and I think it will probably go into the next few years," said Sherry Colburn, LEAP mission director.
Hobar plans to return many times himself.
"We feel an obligation and an ability to really make a long-term effect down there," he said.
