Wednesday's 5.9 magnitude aftershock forced hospital patients out into the streets for safety, but local doctors and volunteers from New York still tried to save the most patients with scarce medical supplies. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

General Hospital is the only functioning hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following the major 7.0 magnitude earthquake that shook the country on January 12. There, local medical staff and volunteer doctors and nurses from New York City and across the world try to aid the injured with few medicines, painkillers and oxygen tanks.

"We're dealing with a certain type of patients, we're dealing with fractures, ... people with mostly trauma," said Dr. Michael Charles, a volunteer from New York City. "Besides that, to take care of the patients, there's no water, there's no food to give to patients. That's my problem."

The biggest aftershock since the initial quake, reaching a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale, shook Port-au-Prince on Wednesday morning. All of the hospital's patients were rushed outside onto the streets, to avoid further collapse of beds.

On Wednesday, the USNS Comfort, a U.S. military hospital ship, said into Port-au-Prince and will offer its 250 hospital beds to quake victims.

"To help minister, we'll decide what patients are brought to the triage unit down on the pier," said Captain John Kirby of the U.S. Joint Task Force. "Those patients will be evaluated by doctors there, both military doctors and civilian doctors from the United States that will take a look and make a decision about who's going out to the ship for treatment."

Military officials say they are doing as much as they can to aid the relief effort.

"You have to understand, this is a city that is the size of many large American cities and it fell to rubble. So these efforts can't just happen automatically," said Sergeant Major Jose Velasquez. "We have moved as fast as humanly possible."

All throughout Port-au-Prince, residents sleep outdoors, and the fear of aftershocks prevent them from staying inside their homes, even if they are not damaged.

"I don't want something to happen like this when I'm inside," said local musician Boulo Valcourt. "I think maybe in one or two weeks I would go back to my sweet home."

Yet despite the widespread fear and anxiety, life goes on. Gina Pardo, a nurse from New York Hospital in Queens who is now volunteering in Port-au-Prince, helped to deliver several babies by caesarean section outdoors on Wednesday.

"You go to do what you got to do. What's best for mommy and baby, we've got to do what we've got to do," said Pardo. "We've got to do with what we have, which is not much."