Sacha Montas, a fourth year resident in emergency medicine at the University hospital, had been thinking about doing medical work in Haiti for several years. And when the devastating earthquake hit last week, he decided to do what he could to help.

Montas, who has both medical and law degrees from the University, is currently in the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti, assisting people who are injured. He has extended family currently living in Haiti — a place where he spent many of his summers growing up.

Currently in Jimani, Dominican Republic — a town near the Haitian border — Montas is working with victims of the disaster.

Many people who were hurt in the earthquake have gone to the country’s border with the Dominican Republic in hopes of finding greater access to medical care, leading to an influx of patients in the last week, Montas said in a phone interview last night.

Two hospitals and several clinics in the town have been treating many victims of the earthquake — mostly those facing orthopedic injuries including those needing amputations — but there has been a shortage of medical supplies, Montas said.

“It has been set up as kind of a de-facto refugee camp — for lack of a better word,” he said.

Montas said the best thing students can do to help the Haitian relief effort is to donate money, which can be used toward much-needed medical supplies and food.

“Because right now, we are having to do things where we are having to make decisions about ‘I have this many bandages or I have this much medication,’” he said. “‘Can I give it right now to this patient or do I have to save it for a patient that needs it more?’”

In the aftermath of last week’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti, various groups on campus are mobilizing to support the relief efforts.

Student organizations are collecting money to donate to the ravaged country, while the University of Michigan Health System and members of the medical community are donating supplies and medical expertise to Haiti. In addition, the University’s Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs recently created an organization — called the Michigan Haiti Earthquake Action Relief Team (M-HEART) — to unite the efforts from various student and faculty groups across campus.

The Health System began collecting medical supplies last Friday to be sent to Haiti in conjunction with Detroit-based charity World Medical Relief.

UMHS also plans to use its Survival Flight Services, a program containing 3 helicopters readily available in case of medical emergencies, to transport supplies, patients and UMHS faculty to and from Haiti, according to a Jan. 15, 2010 Health System press release.

Tony Denton, chief operating officer of the University of Michigan Hospitals & Health Centers, is in charge of the UHMS relief efforts and wrote in the statement that the Health System is doing everything it can to aid those affected by the natural disaster.

"The Health System community, along with the rest of the University of Michigan, is eager to extend its reach and help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti," he wrote in the release.

Students are also organizing various fundraisers and supply drives to donate to the country. The Latino Student Organization collected donations in the Diag on Tuesday to donate to the Red Cross. LSO collected about $580, which will then be matched by a corporation, according to Steven Benavides, the external relations chair for LSO.

Members of other student organizations, like Sigma Kappa and Alpha Chi Omega sororities, have encouraged their members to text HAITI to the number 90999, which will add $10 to their phone bills to be donated to the Red Cross to assist the recovery in Haiti.

Amid these efforts, a 5.9-magnitude aftershock struck the nation yesterday, causing further damage to the already battered capital, according to The Associated Press. The original earthquake hit Port-au-Prince on Jan.