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Mark Hayward ‘86 aids Haiti, Chile quake victims

When Mark Hayward ’86 of King George, Va., heard about the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12, he knew he had to help. A physician’s assistant specializing in tactical, operational and emergency medicine in Maryland, Mark had lived in Haiti for three months in 2009 as a medical officer with a team of U.S. law enforcement personnel. That experience, combined with 16 years in the U.S. Army—including four years as a Special Forces medic and five years as a combat-arms battalion physician’s assistant—made him an ideal candidate to offer aid.

When Mark contacted major aid organizations to offer his assistance, however, he was told the best he could do was make a donation.

“At the same time I was talking to guys on ground, and I asked them what they saw in terms of need,” he said. “They told me it was chaos.”

But Mark couldn’t just sit by and watch the reports on TV. Without any specific plan, he loaded up a couple of suitcases with medical supplies and took off for Santo Domingo. En route, Mark met Will McNulty, a founder of Team Rubicon, a grassroots team of volunteers.

Team Rubicon was initially formed through Facebook to bring together people who could provide disaster relief before major aid organizations are able to mobilize.

“There is a critical gap between when something happens and when big aid organizations are able to get their teams together to provide relief,” Mark said. “That’s where the need is for small volunteer groups.”

By January 17, Mark was in Port-au-Prince with other members of Team Rubicon.

“It was kind of like going to hell,” he told The Enterprise newspaper of Maryland. “We went to an impromptu refugee camp inside the city near a Jesuit school, where we found about 900 people who hadn’t received any medical attention.”

They saw between 200 – 300 patients on Monday. In that same article, which is featured on the Washington Post Web site, Mark said, “I had never seen anything like that in my entire life.” But he acknowledged that if they did not do what they were doing, it would not get done.

“One of the reasons I was able to muddle through when interpreters were not available, was because of my FA French language courses!” he told FA.

He spent ten days in Haiti, and made a follow-up trip in February, and blogged about his experiences there. See Mark’s blogs.   Mark can also be seen in a documentary film on YouTube about the relief mission.

He said it was hard to leave, but “time for us to get out of the way and let [other medical response teams] do their work.”

However, a later blog posting revealed that Mark didn’t yet feel his job was done. “Sometimes I wonder if I’ve really done enough, and sometimes, that keeps me up.”

Mark is continuing to work with members of Team Rubicon to set up grade schools in refugee camps and also creating technical/language scholarship programs for young adults in an effort to address some of the larger problems highlighted by the earthquake.

He said, “While the scope of the disaster, and the limited ability to help, did indeed keep me up nights, I am sleeping better now that I am able to work on some constructive and creative projects as well!”

Postscript: On February 26 a major earthquake hit Chile, and just a few hours later, Mark was on his way to Los Angeles to join Team Rubicon in its first responder efforts in Chile.