Two weeks after Hurricane Marie slammed Puerto Rico, medical officials say the health care system on the beleaguered island “is on life support” —…
Two weeks after Hurricane Marie slammed Puerto Rico, medical officials say the health care system on the beleaguered island “is on life support” — with only one cardio-thoracic surgeon still operating in the US territory.
Dr. Orlando Lopez de Victoria of the Auxillo Mutuo Hospital in San Juan said before Hurricane Maria there were 10 heart surgeons on the island of 3.4 million.
Some, he said, left the island while others can’t operate because of poor conditions at storm-damaged hospitals and clinics.
“I decided to stay because I love my country, my family and my patients,” he told USA Today, which reported on the deteriorating conditions two days after President Trump paid a short visit to the commonwealth.
Trump met with residents in a wealthy and relatively undamaged suburb of San Juan, where he tossed paper towels into a crowd and boasted about the “unbelievable” and “incredible” job his administration was doing to help Puerto Rico recover.
On Monday, Lopez de Victoria operated on a patient whose transfer to the hospital had to be delayed because there was no gasoline for generators, the paper reported.
By the time she arrived at the hospital she was so week she did not survive the procedure.
“We have hospitals that are working, but eventually we are going to have to transfer patients,” said Carlos Méndez, an administrator at the hospital, considered to be one of the island’s top medical facilities.
The USA Today report said that patients are dying because of complications caused by the conditions on the island, where most people remain without power and many still have no running water.
Damaged roadways and the lack of transportation also make it harder to move patients around or get them to the facilities where they can be treated.
With communications still out or at best spotty in many areas, there is a lack of communication and coordination among medical professionals at different facilities.
Doctors don’t want to discharge sick or injured patients after surgery or treatment because of the unsanitary conditions in many areas.
Health officials in Puerto Rico on Wednesday inspected the US Naval Hospital Ship Comfort as it docked in San Juan.
With 1,000 beds, it’s the largest floating medical facility in the US military and will be used to provide more care for the
island’s residents.
Of Puerto Rico’s 69 hospitals, about 64 are operating, though not at 100 percent, the paper reported.
Only 17 have power from the island’s antiquated grid while the others are operating on generator power.
Méndez’s hospital has Puerto Rico’s only fully functioning ward for cardio-thoracic surgery, and he said the Comfort arrived as the island’s health system was “right now is on life support.”
