Victims from Haiti arrive in Atlanta

New York Times, February 4, 2010

The first Haitian patients arrived in the United States after the federal government decided to reimburse hospitals for treating people who suffered life-threatening injuries in last month's earthquake. Doctors and government officials decided the injuries could not be treated properly at Haiti's hospitals, many of which were badly damaged or destroyed in the earthquake. Patients are expected to be flown to the Atlanta area and to Tampa, FL, in the coming weeks, but government officials could not provide an estimate of how many or when. Coordinators in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Lyons, NJ, have been put on alert in case there is a need to send patients to hospitals in those cities, the New York Times reports.