DOTmed user Joseph Porsenna runs his medical equipment company, Island Imaging, out of McDonough, Georgia. But his heart is in his native Haiti.

Porsenna told DOTmed News that he has lost at least 10 family members including a sister and brother-in-law in last week's earthquake. Another sister was critically injured when her house collapsed. She survives and is being treated in the Dominican Republic.

Porsenna, whose parents died years ago, is traumatized by the experience.

"I am 51 so I am ready to receive a call that somebody died. But for a whole load like that, I wasn't ready. Ten to twenty [people] I know died in one shot and close family members. I am not ready for that trauma," he said. "It's so much pain I could not even cry. Who are you crying for? There are too many."

Porsenna came to the U.S. 18 years ago and is now a U.S. citizen but does business in Haiti; many other family members remain on the island.

"The hospitals operating now are the emergency mobile hospitals like from Russia," he reported of the health care facilities. He indicated that eight Haiti hospitals are in ruins.

He said that, despite Wednesday's psychologically upsetting aftershock, the phones are back up and people are furiously sending text messages. "They said everyone is okay from today," he said of the 5.9 aftershock.

Adding to concerns, Porsenna is worried that scam artists will take advantage of well meaning people and companies.

"People are trying to cash in on what is happening; they pretend they are receiving equipment and donations for Haiti and will just try to hold on to it," he cautioned. However he acknowledged that X-ray equipment and supplies used for trauma treatment are sorely needed.

"This will be a long haul, not a two- or three-month effort," he said of the need to rebuild medical facilities in Haiti.

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