Latest local news, weather and high school sports from the Midlands

COLUMBIA -- Seeing is believing and 35 years ago, Dr. Hal Crosswell never would have imagined the level of suffering in Haiti.

“They have very little and yet I think they deserve a lot more,” said Dr. Hal Crosswell, an Ophthalmologist in Columbia.

In 1974, the United Methodist Church built a health clinic in the town of Jeremie which is 125 miles from the capital of Port-Au-Prince.  Since then, Dr. Crosswell has been part of a group of volunteers that provides medical services, like ophthalmology.

“The primary problem we see is glaucoma and cataracts,” said Dr. Crosswell.

The clinic in Jeremie provides the only eye surgery and treatment in that section of Haiti.

Crosswell was to travel to Haiti with seven other medical professionals: three ophthalmologists, two nurses, an optician, and a bio-med engineer.  They would have been the first eye team at the clinic since December.

Crosswell is thankful he missed the earthquake that has claimed the lives of thousands.

“It’s heart-wrenching to see what is going on over there with those people,” said Dr. Crosswell.

Crosswell says he’s ready to go whenever he gets the okay from the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission Program.  As for now, he will try to do as much as he can from more than a thousand miles a way.