A nurse from Shirley, West Midlands and a water engineer from Harrogate are part of a team responding to Tuesday’s earthquake in the Caribbean nation of Haiti.

Sheila Leech (53), International Healthcare Director with HCJB Global Hands is leading the rapid emergency medical response from the HCJB Global hospitals in Ecuador . The team is due to arrive in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince today following the7.0-magnitude quake. Martin Harrison (38), Director of Community Development with HCJB Global Hands, a former water engineer with Yorkshire Water, is installing water filters and providing logistics and communication support for medical staff.

As soon as news of the quake was received, Leech began forming the team that consists of two surgeons, an anaesthetist, a family physician and a water engineer. A registered nurse trained at Heartlands Hospital, Leech has led emergency response teams in Indonesia after a 2005 earthquake and Lebanon, which was rife with live landmines during her team’s visit.

Team members, Drs. Eckehart Wolff and Steve Nelson bring experience of medical work in zones where quakes or floods have struck. Past experience will serve the team members well, but Nelson said, “We will be out of our element with language being French and Creole.”

The HCJB Global Hands team will be at the Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital in Port-au-Prince. The hospital’s director of operations, Kyrk Baker, called the situation “overwhelming” with patients lining the floor. Baker said: “There are big box vans coming in with people to see a doctor It's just unbelievable the amount of people that are lined up trying to get basic medical care.”

Located in the mountains outside Port Au Prince, the hospital is about 20 miles from the Tuesday quake’s epicentre. Generators are supplying it and other facilities with electricity. The HCJB Global Hands team will focus on medical help, shelter, clean water, and hygiene supplies.

Considered the strongest to strike Haiti in two centuries, the quake was felt as far away as Cuba. Widespread panic occurred as it brought down buildings including the presidential palace, hotels, a hospital, and the UN headquarters in the capital. The death toll is expected reach the thousands. Haiti is considered the poorest nation in the Caribbean.