Miami Memorial Service Remembers Volunteer Shot In Haiti
MIAMI (CBS4) - A memorial service was held in Miami on Sunday for an Ohio man who was shot while volunteering in Haiti.
David Bompart was working for the charity he founded with his wife Nicolle when he was shot by thieves after he had taken money out of the bank to feed orphans. Despite his bleeding wound, David was able to walk to the nearest hospital with the money still tucked away securely in his pocket.
Dr. Jerry Bitar performed surgery on Bompart in the hospital he helped to build.
"He came to the hospital to help. He came to Haiti to help and he was killed in Haiti by a Haitian, I think its really twisted and sad," said Bitar.
Ultimately they flew him to the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami where tubes, a ventilator and a medically induced coma kept him alive for eight days.
Project Medishare for Haiti, a charity that David once worked for, held the memorial service in his honor at Bayfront Park from 2 to 3pm.
"I want to thank the Haitian people for loving us, for loving me well, for loving my husband well," Nicolle Bompart told the gathering. "I have already forgiven the people who shot my husband and I ask that you stand behind me and forgive them as well."
This is the second time Nicolle Bompart has been widowed.
She and her husband David were once drawn to each other because they both lost their first spouses. Out of that sorrow the couple started a charity in Haiti called Eyes Wide Open International, devoted to helping orphans and widows.
"I am more passionate than ever to try and do great things in Haiti," said Nicolle Bompart. "I'm hoping with all of the attention that has come to my husbands sacrifice, he was willing to lay it down for people. We knew when we sent him out to the earthquake that it was gonna be dangerous."
The death of David also impacts their son Mack that they adopted in Haiti. He was an orphan and the Bomparts made sure had had several life saving surgeries over the past year.
"Since he's already been through major trauma, lost already his first family in Haiti and now lost his dad why would he not be angry," asked Nicolle. "So what I encourage him to think about is all of the things that made his dad special."
A reminder she tries to keep in her own mind in the moments when grief seems to overwhelm her. Nicolle's friends and family are now holding her up during her desperation.
"They have seen me you know with my face swollen out to here from tears and literally screaming before God to take this burden from me," she said with tears streaming down her face. "But there's nothing that can be done. We prayed. We worshipped. We asked God for a different result and this is the result that we got."
