Penn docs head to Haiti

The first wave of medical staff from the University of Pennsylvania is on its way to a hospital in central Haiti. Nine doctors, nurses and technicians will spend two weeks treating patients, and are bringing twelve hundred pounds of medical supplies.

Michael Ashburn is an anesthesiology professor at Penn and the team's leader. He says the surgical needs of patients have changed since the first response after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

Ashburn: Early on, orthopedic surgery focused on amputations. Now we're trying to do limb salvage procedures in those people who continue to have injuries.

Ashburn's team is heading to the village of Cange, several hours from Port-au-Prince. The non-profit group Partners in Health runs the hospital there. Ashburn says a second wave of medical staff could leave by week's end.

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania was the first in the U.S. to accept patients from Haiti after the earthquake.

A team from Cooper University Hospital has been treating patients in the Dominican Republic.

Doctors and nurses from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania are en route to a hospital in rural Haiti.