In one long night, Haiti changed him

Kevin Robinson had never been so tired at the end of a day.

"But I think we saved a few people," the Statesville native and Coast Guard ensign told his parents, Mike and Nan Robinson, in a recent e-mail from Haiti.

Robinson's cutter was taking on supplies at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when the 7.0-magnitude quake struck Haiti Jan. 12. The cutter left to go help the injured.

Robinson, 22, a 2005 graduate of North Iredell High School, quickly put his first aid training to work.

"The number of injured people here is overwhelming, but the Coast Guard personnel are doing all we can, and it seems to be making a difference," he told his parents in one of many e-mails from the devastated country.

Robinson, who graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 2009, spent most of one day helping treat lacerations. He put iodine and peroxide on cuts, then used Neosporin and covered the wounds with clean bandages. "Infection is a big problem here in the tropics," he said.

He also recounted how a Coast Guard EMT asked him to pull on a victim's leg so the EMT could set her bone back in place.

"So I did, and he put it back in place, and then we did another one," Robinson said. "They didn't prepare me for that in first-aid class. The suffering here is horrible."

He told his parents that children who survived the earthquake "are unbelievably brave. I helped set one child's broken leg back in place, and he just gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound.

"Another little girl had a severe scalp laceration. They just laid her down on the table, gave her a shot, and the doctors went to work on her. She never made a peep. It was truly incredible. I'd probably have been swinging at the doctors, but she just laid there still as can be."

Robinson has been able to talk by phone only once with his family, and only for a few moments. But he has e-mail access aboard the Coast Guard cutter Tahoma.

In an e-mail to my Observer colleague Jim Morrill last week, Robinson said he's been too busy to reflect on what's happened so far.

"The only thing that I'm concerned with at the moment is determining how I can be more effective in helping the people here," he wrote.

That's no surprise to his dad, who said Kevin has always felt called to help others. So has Kevin's sister, Amanda, a 2008 North Iredell High grad who's a sophomore at the Coast Guard Academy, Mike Robinson said.

While stationed in San Diego, Mike Robinson said, his son coached youth at a wrestling club in his spare time.

His son's helping earthquake victims is "just outstanding," Mike Robinson said. "Phenomenal, actually."

Kevin Robinson told his parents he and his Coast Guard mates are just trying to make what difference they can.

"The doctors said there will be people who will lose limbs because of the infections, so what we we're doing was very important," he said.

Joe Marusak: 704-987-3670; jmarusak@charlotteobserver.com.

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