In a Washington Post obituary, accomplishments and life of Dr. Paul Auerbach, pioneer of wilderness and disaster medicine, are detailed.
Even with his extensive training in medical emergencies, Dr. Auerbach was unprepared for the devastation he encountered when he volunteered to travel to Haiti to care for victims of the earthquake that struck the Caribbean nation in 2010.
“Paul was there organizing humanitarian relief before most NGOs arrived and about a week before the US military,” Lemery wrote in a tribute posted on the website of the Wilderness Medical Society. “It’s an overused word, but he was truly heroic, and his actions embodied the highest attributes of medical-care providers at their very best. It was only years later that I understood how this experience took a significant toll on his psyche. I think he left part of his soul in that hospital courtyard in Port-au-Prince, but I know he never regretted a second of the time that he was there.”