It’s been more than a month since the devastating earthquake that killed and injured tens of thousands of people on the island of Haiti. Sadly, in today’s media-saturated society, even such heart wrenching events are soon yesterday’s news, as other headlines capture peoples’ attention. But, two Dallas-area plastic surgeons are unwilling to forget the traumatic event, having witnessed firsthand the devastation and human suffering it caused.

Dr. Alejandra Garcia Mitchell and Dr. Craig Hobar traveled to Haiti less than a week after the quake struck on January 12 in an effort to help victims who would be unable to receive the surgical aide they need otherwise. An estimated 300,000 people were hurt in the disaster, many of them suffering crush injuries. Other victims had deep wounds that would require skin grafts, and those suffering facial fractures need complex reconstruction procedures.

Dr. Hobar was up for the challenge and recently told the Dallas Morning News he believes that healing Haiti is a calling – one he’s prepared for over his 20-year medical career. In 1991, Hobar started a nonprofit foundation, Life Enhancement Association for People (LEAP), to fix facial and limb deformities in children living in Third World countries. When the earthquake struck last month, LEAP immediately gave $100,000 for the relief effort and rallied hundreds of surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses from the U.S. and Europe to volunteer for week-long rotations on the devastated Caribbean island. Since then, he has pledged for LEAP to have a full-time presence in Haiti.

Hobar says his faith has helped him when the task to help those in Haiti seemed too overwhelming.

“Either you say it’s too enormous; there’s no way; get me out of here – or you react like I hope we have: You say there’s too much pain and devastation, and I can’t fix it, but I’ve got to do everything I can to help,” he told the paper.

Dr. Craig Hobar knows he will not able to help everyone who is suffering in the aftermath of the destruction in Haiti, but hopes that the surgeons from LEAP will play an important role in the effort to rebuild.

“The first step is to step forward, to have a faith of action,” he said. “Then God will make a way.”