The relief work took an emotional toll on the medical team as well.

“Emotionally, it’s really hard to see that level of suffering. It’s beyond imagining. I’m not even sure how I feel about it,” said Goodman, whose trip to Iran was her first time doing relief work in a foreign country. “We’re seeing children brought in by a relative, because their entire family had been destroyed except for this one relative,” Waltzman said.

But the team’s stay in Iran also had its share of emotional triumphs. “I had one grandfather come back two days after his child was sent to Tehran for brain surgery, in tears, thanking us for saving his granddaughter’s life,” Waltzman said.

The government in Kerman also sent the team Iranian dates and pistachios as an expression of gratitude, according to Waltzman.

The Iranians were aware that the doctors were spending their New Year’s providing medical relief.

“The local people brought us some pastries and a drink to thank us for spending our holiday doing this kind of work,” Waltzman said.

After leaving Iran, the Boston-based disaster relief team donated all its supplies for a long-term hospital in Bam.