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MICHAEL and Michelle Goeden had planned a honeymoon to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic late last month, expecting to spend time relaxing in the tropical warmth.

Instead, the Spotsylvania County emergency medical doctor and his new bride, a nurse in a doctor's office, joined an eight-person medical team treating scores of the gravely injured in Haiti.

The weeklong trip began Jan. 25, with Spotsylvania internist and pediatrician Timothy Powell and Ruckersville paramedic Dave Butt. It wasn't the sort of island adventure they had planned.

"But it was an amazing experience," said Michelle Goeden, Powell's office manager. "You'd work in a clinic all day just trying to help as many people as you could. When you finally got a chance to catch your breath in the afternoon or evening, the emotion of it all would almost overwhelm you."

The doctors, interpreters and support staff were sent on the mission trip by Grace Church of Fredericksburg, which for years has worked with Siloe Baptist Church in Port-au-Prince to provide continuing medical care through a clinic there.

Members of the medical team have made trips before, and have helped make great strides in decreasing infant mortality and improving care for long-term health issues such as hypertension and diabetes.

"But this time, we asked the people who have been trained in that church to triage for us, and get in patients who had the most severe injuries," said Powell. "Those, we saw in the first three days, and it was overwhelming."

Powell and the Goedens said the injuries they saw initially were mainly the result of people being hit or trapped by falling debris.

"Broken and smashed bones or extremities, open wounds with dirt and debris embedded in them, infections in wounds where the patient hadn't ever had access to water or anything to clean the wound," said Mike Goeden.

He added that the team also saw maladies and complications such as worms, skin infections, dehydration and malnutrition resulting from the fact that so many people were living on the streets without access to food or clean water.