Time seems to pass by quickly as we train professionals about psychosocial needs and reactions after a disaster. We have trained various professionals who consistently apply the information to their personal and professional lives. Each group has been great to work with as we engage them in various activities, from doing grounding techniques to peer counseling, art work, stress management techniques, etc. They are always eager and seem to gain tremendously in the process.

All day yesterday, I was at several orphanages working with children. Some have lost everyone, and they seem very sad and lost. One little girl was so very sad that she just started crying and sat on my lap, just wanting to be held. Children we saw seem to struggle with lots of nightmares about the earthquake and the deaths they saw. Their stories have touched our hearts today, as they are such a vulnerable population. Some of their parents have been found, but other’s fates are unknown.

We are also hearing some very sad stories from adults that show how so many Haitians suffered, and that relief came for some of them very slowly. But there are also stories of people putting their own lives at risk to save a stranger’s life. One man told us that the day after the earthquake, as he looked around Port-au-Prince, he saw a hand sticking out of a collapsed building. He wasn’t sure at first if the person had died, but as he got closer, he could hear the man calling out for help. The man was stuck, and another Haitian man, a total stranger, started to remove the debris piece by piece. Others who were around started to help and they freed most of the rubble, but they saw that his femur was broken and sticking out through his skin, and his other leg was all twisted around. The rescuer was not sure what to do next, as the man ‘s leg, which he had feverishly worked on freeing for several hours, seemed to be wedged in and couldn’t be freed. The trapped man begged him, saying “Please don’t leave me.” The helping man said he would try but could not promise that he would be successful. He looked around and noticed that there was a very small space in the debris below the man. It was barely big enough for him to fit, but he pulled himself through this tight space on his belly. At one point, when the space got even tighter, he paused for a moment, thinking that he would die should another aftershock occur (there were many after the earthquake), but he decided he could not stop. He inched forward and was able to see what prevented the leg from being freed. He worked slowly but persistently, cutting off parts of the man’s pants and shoe to free up the leg, which was the only thing keeping the man trapped.

This good Samaritan periodically came out from the tight space under the trapped man, only to go right back in to keep on working. Someone else also took a turn, and the last time he went in, he realized that there was a small part of the trapped man’s pants that were keeping him trapped. He slowly cut away, inch by inch, until suddenly, like a springloaded machine, the leg twisted back into the right position and set him free. The man was airlifted to the hospital. The rescuer does not know what happened to the man he was willing to risk his life for. Was he okay? He only knows that “It was the right thing to do.”

There were many other heroic acts in the hours and days after the earthquake, with strangers helping strangers, at times risking their own lives to help someone in need.

Karin Jordan is a counselor and a guest blogger writing from her volunteer work site in Haiti