Team of Mass health care providers head to Florida to help in wake of Ian
BOSTON - On Saturday, the Disaster Medical Assistance Team, will deploy to a hospital in Sarasota, Florida.
The team of 37 Massachusetts professionals – including doctors, nurses, and paramedics -- will set up an emergency department in the parking lot of a Sarasota hospital.
Many providers on the team have been helping people through the worst moments of their lives for more than 10 years.
"Any one of us could be in this circumstance. Certainly in Boston, we could be struck by a hurricane and that there are people who want to help and will show up in our greatest time of need and will lend a hand and, if I were working in a hospital, that I could go home and take care of my family and take care of myself for a little bit and come back to work -- that's what motivates me is to do the same thing that I think anyone would do for us if we were in the same situation," said Dr. Paul Biddinger.
Biddinger said the team will be there to relieve doctors and nurses who have been working tirelessly since the storm hit and may not have had time to survey the damage to their own homes.