For someone who had found out four days before that she would
leave for Haiti in only a week, Aida Eriksson seemed strangely
relaxed. On Thursday, she’ll make her first visit to Haiti, three
months after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake devastated the country.
To go, she had to take off time from work at Hazel Hawkins Memorial
Hospital and say goodbye to her three kids.
For someone who had found out four days before that she would leave for Haiti in only a week, Aida Eriksson seemed strangely relaxed.
The 52-year-old nurse of nearly 30 years has helped in other parts of the world before, actually twice before. As a member of the National Nurses United and the Registered Nurse Response Network, Eriksson has traveled the world helping the countries of Sudan and Sri Lanka when they were in need.
On Thursday, she’ll make her first visit to Haiti, three months after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake devastated the country. To go, she had to take off time from work at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital and say goodbye to her three kids.
The local nurse, with the hospital for 11 years, is part of a 10-person team that the nurses organization put together to spend nine days in the devastated country.
The nurses will spend their resources and time in “Hopital Sacre Coeur,” the largest private hospital in northern Haiti and 80 miles north of Port-au-Prince, RNRN spokesperson Liz Jacobs said.
Eriksson, who lives in Gilroy, will return to the U.S. on April 18.
“It is the first of many teams to be sent to help over the next few months,” said Jacobs.
Nurses will work alongside Haitian nurses and doctors to help the typical 56,000 annual patients that receive care through the hospital, according to the organization. RNRN nurses, similar to Doctors Without Borders, will help with the hospital’s training program, after 150 nursing students were killed in the earthquake.
Eriksson and her group was scheduled as the first to arrive, she said, while she was chosen from nearly 13,000 volunteers.
And despite the unknown devastation of Haiti, helping those who are less fortunate is something that comes second nature to Eriksson, because she was once in their shoes growing up in the Philippines.
“I know what it’s like to go hungry. I have four brothers and four sisters and we lived in a shack the size of a two-car garage,” Eriksson explained. “My father always said my saving grace was my education and my faith – so I was able to come here because of my nursing and my education.”
For the full story, see the Pinnacle on Friday.
