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VIA: AJC.com

Five Haitian earthquake victims, including an 18-month-old with brain injuries, were airlifted Tuesday night to Dobbins Air Force Base and taken to different area hospitals.

A network of hospitals was waiting to accept the injured, said Kevin Bloye, spokesman for the Georgia Hospital Association, which coordinates local disaster preparedness efforts.

“When things like this happen, we’re ready,” Bloye said.

The five victims, plus a military member from Haiti, arrived in at the Cobb County base around 9:45 p.m.

Others from Haiti have arrived at bases in Florida in recent weeks, but this is the first group headed for Georgia, Dobbins spokesman Jim Weslowski told the news agency.

Officials from Atlanta VA Medical Center and Dobbins could not be reached for comment by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Grady Memorial Hospital was prepared to receive some of the patients from Haiti, spokesman Matt Gove said, though he was told they wouldn’t arrive until Wednesday.

The waiting hospitals were told there would be a flight a day for four days, and each would bring between 10 and 15 patients, considerably more than earlier reports.

Given the severity of the injuries, a large number of the Haitian arrivals area expected to end up at Grady, which has Atlanta’s only top-level trauma center, Gove said.

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