(CNN) - Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a heart and lung surgeon, departed for Haiti on Monday as part of a medical mission to provide relief to the battered Carribean nation.

"I left this morning out of Southern Florida, prepared for disaster conditions and with as many medical supplies as I was allowed to carry," Frist said in an e-mail to supporters Monday. He said he will be blogging and posting photos from the country throughout his trip.

Frist said he is soliciting donations and medical supplies for the Haiti Disaster Relief Fund, a group he founded to assist victims of last week's earthquake. Frist is traveling to Port-au-Prince with Samaritan's Purse, a Christian relief organization.

Chris Walker, a spokesman for the former Tennessee senator, said in an e-mail that Frist will be in Haiti for "as long as needed."

Frist has also undertaken several medical missions to Darfur, the war-torn region of western Sudan.

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