Doctors Without Borders is having their inflatable hospital delivered today.

MSF has already treated more than 1,000 people on the ground in Haiti following Tuesday’s earthquake, but the needs are huge. An inflatable hospital with operating theatres is expected to arrive in the next 24 hours.

If you aren’t familiar with how it works, watch the video of the one that was used in Pakistan during their last big earthquake.   They can have sterile rooms, surgical suites, etc.

It took a half-dozen workers about three hours to set up the inflatable, $250,000 structure, destined for a health-care consortium in Peoria, Ill. Deflated, it stores in six desk-size bundles, ready for any emergency.

So many of the injuries are trauma injuries.  People are using dirty rags, cardboard, wood, etc., to stabilize open wounds.  I dare say that with so much chaos going on right now, secondary infections caused by open wounds are going to be the issue of the day.  Time is of the essence because in medicine hours and days are how illness is measured.

You can have all the docs in the world descend upon Haiti, but without sterile surgical suites, they have nothing.  Consider donating funds to Doctors Without Borders.

If you prefer not to use a credit card, ParkSlopeVoter has provided this information so that you can easily send a check.

Doctors Without Borders
333 Seventh Avenue
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001

Remote Area Medical Foundation is also going to Haiti.   If you are curious, watch some of what they do here.