Burbank Nurse Heads To Philippines For Typhoon Relief Effort

WESTWOOD (CBSLA.com) — A Burbank man is among a group of registered nurses departing Monday for the Philippines to provide medical support in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

KNX 1070's Vytas Safronikas reports as families are busy with December holiday preparations, Paolo Montenegro and others are going to serve others in need thousands of miles away.

Montenegro, who works at UCLA Medical Center, is just one of about 3,000 nurses from all 50 U.S. states and 19 other nations who have volunteered with the National Nurses United's Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) in Roxas on the northern end of the island of Panay, which was in the direct path of Haiyan.

"We will provide mobile clinics for the people; we set up clinics also in churches, gyms, classrooms even," said Montenegro.

UCLA officials will be paying for airfare, accommodations, and two weeks of pay, according to RNRN's Fong Shu.

Montenegro will join a fourth delegation of RNs from Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Illinois, Arizona, and California to provide basic medical care, offer critical stress debriefings and other basic care in clinics in Roxas.

The nurses' network will also expand its current deployment to sites in hard-hit Estancia, also on Panay, which, in addition to the effects of the typhoon, was also slammed with a debilitating oil spill.

The typhoon pushed the spill onto the shoreline, dropped oil onto people's homes, and clogged the air with crippling fumes, all of which exacerbated health risks for area residents, according to Shu.

After the storm made landfall Nov. 8, Haiyan tore through six Philippine islands, leaving more than 5,900 dead and nearly 1,800 missing.