San Juan , Puerto Rico ( CNN ) -- A humanitarian mission to aid Haitian earthquake victims turned into a major embarrassment in Puerto Rico on Friday as pictures emerged of doctors drinking , mugging for cameras and brandishing firearms amid the victims ' suffering . The ethics committee of the commonwealth 's medical board said it was launching an investigation into whether those involved should be disciplined . Puerto Rican Secretary of Health Lorenzo Gonzalez called the episode `` a sad situation . '' `` The poor judgment of a few basically damages the beautiful effort that many others have put in place in terms of providing good medical care , '' Gonzalez said . `` When I saw the pictures , I was very concerned that they have taken pictures of people without any consent . '' Some of the photos , which were posted on the social networking site Facebook , show smiling doctors holding guns or toasting each other , bottles of scotch or other alcohol in their hands . Others show medical personnel in what appears to be a clinic , grinning as they attend to patients . Another shows a quake victim on a hospital bed , naked from the waist down except for a thin strip of cloth covering the genitals . `` You ca n't ever take pictures of patients if you do n't have a written agreement and much less publish photos of patients half-nude , '' the president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons told CNN . Dr. Eduardo Ibarra added , `` This is a clear violation of the Hippocratic Oath ... We 're going to take all the measures possible to correct this . '' Ibarra said some of the photographs were taken in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic after the group had operated on 70 patients who were in critical condition . `` In any form , the question of drinking beer while wearing their surgical gear is bad -- it 's like a police officer drinking beer while wearing their uniform , '' he said . `` They violated the rules of conduct . '' He said the ethics committee members would identify the doctors and evaluate their acts , `` always with the presumption of innocence . '' Though the committee has yet to decide on a course of action , some doctors have already suffered consequences , he said . `` Some of them already lost their jobs , '' he said . `` They 're going to lose probably their careers . It 's a mess . Only because of some stupidity . '' An anesthesiologist who traveled with the group said she was saddened by the photographs , but said her colleagues `` gave 200 percent '' with limited resources . `` Their work was excellent , '' Dr. Enid Garcia told Puerto Rico 's Primera Hora newspaper . The story led the Friday evening news broadcast of CNN affiliate WAPA , in San Juan , which devoted 12 minutes to the subject , including an interview with one of the doctors who appeared in a photograph carrying a rifle . `` I regret it , '' said Dr. Carlos Ortiz . He said the pictures were intended as nothing more than a reminder of their work , and that soldiers had handed them their weapons to hold while posing . The embarrassment was heightened by the fact that the mission was coordinated by Puerto Rico 's Senate . Days after the January 12 quake in Haiti , the Senate announced it would oversee sending more than 100 doctors to set up a field hospital near the town of Jimani , across the border in the Dominican Republic . The town has been flooded with Haitians injured in the quake , seeking medical help unavailable at home . Prior to sending the medical professionals on January 15 , Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz told them , `` With you goes the heart of all the people of Puerto Rico . '' On Friday , in a news release , he called the conduct of some of them `` imprudent '' and `` indiscreet . '' The soldiers should be investigated , he said , for having allowed the health professionals to pose with their weapons . CNN 's Nick Valencia , Benjamin Fernandez and Jennifer Deaton in Atlanta , Georgia , contributed to this report .
Anesthesiologist who traveled with the group : `` Their work was excellent '' Photos emerge on Facebook of doctors drinking and grinning among suffering Haitians . Puerto Rican medical ethics board meeting Friday ; investigation announced . Some photos show smiling doctors holding guns , bottles of liquor .