BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ (Reproduced from the Miami Herald)
DMOSKOVITZ@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Trini David Bompart, the Good Samaritan who was shot in Port-au-Prince during an attempted robbery, has died.
Bompart, 50, from Columbus, Ohio, died Thursday at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was taken after the Jan. 24 attack, which left him with a gunshot wound to the abdomen .
He had just taken money out of a Port-au-Prince bank to buy food for Haitian orphans. He had been in the country off and on since the 2010 earthquake helping to rebuild. His most recent project was helping to build an orphanage.
His wife, Nicolle Bompart, announced his death on a website set up to give updates on his condition.
“Just a few brief moments ago the love of my life went to be with someone who loves him more than me,” she wrote. “Today is the day I never hoped would come and these are the words I never hoped to type.”
Bompart, better known as “Big Dave,” was a veteran of the Trinidad and Tobago military who also spent time working for the United Nations. Both Bompart and his wife lost their first spouses to premature deaths, and Bompart believed it was his calling to help people who have experienced similar tragedy.
In 2009, the Bomparts established Eyes Wide Open International, a religious-based non-profit aimed at helping the poor. When the earthquake struck Haiti two years ago, Bompart was on plane to the impoverish nation within two weeks.
The Bomparts spent much of the last two years flying between Haiti, Florida and Ohio for their charity work and for medical care for their 14-year-old son, a Haitian boy they adopted after the earthquake. The couple also has a 26-year-old daughter.
David Bompart hooked up with University of Miami’s Project Medishare for Haiti, a joint initiative with American and Haitian doctors at Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince dedicated to providing comprehensive health and development services. He ran Medishare’s logistics operation for a time, before creating an orphanage on the island.
Project Medishare leaders said Thursday in a statement that Eyes Wide Open International will continue to build the orphanage in Haiti and provide help for the needy — because it was what Bompart.
“We are grateful for the precious time that Dave shared with us in Haiti and for the thousands of lives he touched. We will continue to honor Big Dave’s memory through our work in Haiti,” Dr. Barth Green, president of Project Medishare, said in a statement. “He will always be remembered for his larger than life personality, his dedication and his big heart.”
DMOSKOVITZ@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Trini David Bompart, the Good Samaritan who was shot in Port-au-Prince during an attempted robbery, has died.
Bompart, 50, from Columbus, Ohio, died Thursday at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was taken after the Jan. 24 attack, which left him with a gunshot wound to the abdomen .
He had just taken money out of a Port-au-Prince bank to buy food for Haitian orphans. He had been in the country off and on since the 2010 earthquake helping to rebuild. His most recent project was helping to build an orphanage.
His wife, Nicolle Bompart, announced his death on a website set up to give updates on his condition.
“Just a few brief moments ago the love of my life went to be with someone who loves him more than me,” she wrote. “Today is the day I never hoped would come and these are the words I never hoped to type.”
Bompart, better known as “Big Dave,” was a veteran of the Trinidad and Tobago military who also spent time working for the United Nations. Both Bompart and his wife lost their first spouses to premature deaths, and Bompart believed it was his calling to help people who have experienced similar tragedy.
In 2009, the Bomparts established Eyes Wide Open International, a religious-based non-profit aimed at helping the poor. When the earthquake struck Haiti two years ago, Bompart was on plane to the impoverish nation within two weeks.
The Bomparts spent much of the last two years flying between Haiti, Florida and Ohio for their charity work and for medical care for their 14-year-old son, a Haitian boy they adopted after the earthquake. The couple also has a 26-year-old daughter.
David Bompart hooked up with University of Miami’s Project Medishare for Haiti, a joint initiative with American and Haitian doctors at Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince dedicated to providing comprehensive health and development services. He ran Medishare’s logistics operation for a time, before creating an orphanage on the island.
Project Medishare leaders said Thursday in a statement that Eyes Wide Open International will continue to build the orphanage in Haiti and provide help for the needy — because it was what Bompart.
“We are grateful for the precious time that Dave shared with us in Haiti and for the thousands of lives he touched. We will continue to honor Big Dave’s memory through our work in Haiti,” Dr. Barth Green, president of Project Medishare, said in a statement. “He will always be remembered for his larger than life personality, his dedication and his big heart.”
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