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UR team heads to Puerto Rico to assist with medical care

UR Medicine/Facebook

A group of 11 health care providers from the University of Rochester Medical Center is headed to Puerto Rico this week to assist in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

They left early Tuesday morning, including nurses, nurse practitioners and a physician from Highland Hospital, Strong Memorial Hospital and Strong West.

One of those providers is Emily Winters, a registered nurse and professional development specialist at Highland Hospital.

Winters says the team is not sure exactly where they will be yet, but possibly at a mobile site that has been set up to assist hospitals that may not have all of their facilities back. She says she’s glad to be able to help.

“I’ve never done anything like this but as a nurse we always aspire to give back, not only to our local community, but to far off places. So this is a great opportunity and something I’ve always wanted to do, it’s so gratifying to be able to do this,” Winters told WXXI News.

The UR team will be in Puerto Rico for 16 days. It’s  possible another team from the medical center will be sent down after the first group returns.

The team is part of an overall effort organized by the Healthcare  Association of New York.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.