Surgeon returns to Ottawa after helping in Haiti

An Ottawa plastic surgeon is back in Canada after spending a week treating earthquake victims in Haiti.

Dr. Alexandra Condé-Green, 35, was born in Canada but spent most of her life in Port-au-Prince, where her mother still lives.  After the massive earthquake struck two weeks ago, the plastic surgeon booked the first flight she could find back to Haiti.

"They needed a specialist and orthopedists and surgeons, and so I just felt that I should go there," she said. Condé-Green once studied at the University Hospital in Port-au-Prince, and that’s where she returned to volunteer her services.

She worked in a makeshift operating room next to the hospital, which was badly damaged in the earthquake. She struggled to keep her emotions in check as she set broken bones, did amputations and performed between 30 and 40 operations a day.

 "Seeing the strength of all these people, I mean I haven’t lost any members of my family, and these people who have almost nothing else, they are very strong," she said. "So I feel that I also should be strong, to be able to treat them."

Condé-Green said she will go back because many of the people who were injured in the earthquake will require plastic surgery.