PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Doctors skirted a bureaucratic logjam to save the lives of three critically ill victims of Haiti’s earthquake yesterday, flying them to US hospitals on a private jet to avoid a military suspension of medical evacuation flights.
Related: The Boton Globe's Invisible Ink: Halting Haitian Airlifts
A 5-year-old tetanus victim, a 14-month-old boy critically ill with pneumonia, and a baby with third-degree burns were sent to Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia by the Boston aid group Partners in Health.
The airlift had been in doubt after the US military suspended medical evacuation flights Wednesday night because of apparent concerns over the long-term costs to US public hospitals of absorbing seriously injured patients.
So much for that golden heart of AmeriKan military occupation, 'eh?
“This is a good day,’’ said Dr. Louise Ivers, Partners in Health’s clinical director in Haiti. “These are three children who would have died if they had stayed here. It’s the little successes like that that keep us going here.’’
Yeah, its something and I'm glad three more people are not dead; however, I'm getting tired of the "we're doing good" happy horse s*** when this thing has been an utter disaster.
Five-year-old Betina Joseph, who developed tetanus from a small cut on her thigh, was in danger of dying if she could not reach a US intensive care unit and get a feeding tube and oxygen through her locked jaw, doctors said.
“We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don’t medevac them,’’ Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the University of Miami’s Global Institute for Community Health and Development, said Friday.
The White House said last night that US officials were restarting the military evacuation flights out of Haiti after receiving assurances that additional medical capacity exists in the United States and its international partners.
Translation: The CRITICISM WORKED!
US Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said about 435 earthquake victims had been evacuated before the suspension
Governor Charlie Crist of Florida told ABC News’ “Good Morning America’’ yesterday that he was puzzled by the suspension. He said that 700 people had come from Haiti to Florida over the past 24 hours, and that the state was still willing to help emergency cases.
“It’s all hands on deck here in the Sunshine State,’’ Crist said. “We’re welcoming Haitians with open arms and probably done more than any other state and happy to continue to do so.’’
Oh, yeah, liar!?
"Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wrote a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, warning that "Florida's health care system is quickly reaching saturation"
And he LIED RIGHT on NATIONAL TV, huh?
Also yesterday, the United Nations World Food Program began distributing food directly to women in targeted food lines, largely avoiding the violent jostling that has disrupted aid since the earthquake.
The World Food Program and its partners, including World Vision, borrowed an approach that has worked in other disaster zones. The agencies fanned out across Port-au-Prince, distributing coupons to be redeemed for bags of rice at 16 sites. They plan to continue the system daily for the next two weeks.
Also getting aid were elderly and disabled people and some men, who were allowed into line if women in their household were unable to come.
Young men often have forced their way to the front of aid delivery lines, or have stolen from others, meaning aid does not reach the neediest at rough-and-tumble distribution centers, according to aid groups.
Rosedithe Menelas, 79, gingerly descended concrete steps with a bag of rice perched on her head Sunday. She passed it off to her daughter-in-law, who quickly disappeared behind the faded leopard-print sheets that are the walls of their makeshift home on the crowded turf of Haiti’s National Stadium.
In earlier attempts to get food, Menelas and thousands of other women across Haiti’s capital had to battle with men at food handouts that had been chaotic and dangerous scrums.
“Every time they give out food there’s too much trouble,’’ said Menelas, collapsing into a small wooden chair as two grandchildren quickly scrambled into her lap. “Today, we finally got something.’’
“Our experience around the world is that food is more likely to be equitably shared in the household if it is given to women,’’ World Food Program spokesman Marcus Prior said at the stadium, now a sprawling encampment of families left homeless by the quake.
UN officials say they are still far short of reaching all 2 million quake victims estimated to need food aid.
White House officials said they were working to increase hospital capacity in Haiti and aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship as well as in the United States.
Colonel Rick Kaiser said yesterday that the US Army Corps of Engineers has been asked to build a 250-bed tent hospital to relieve pressures on the Comfort and on Haitian facilities where earthquake victims are being treated under tarpaulins in hospital grounds.
Several Port-au-Prince hospitals were damaged or destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.Not that I want the Haitians to suffer, but HOW MANY MILLIONS of Americans do NOT HAVE HEALTH CARE?
And we are sending and building hospitals elsewhere, huh?
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Yeah, END the WARS and BANK LOOTING, 'kay?!!!!
Then there will be PLENTY of MONEY for EVERYONE!!!
"10 found taking Haitian children could face US courts; Baptists knew their act ‘was wrong,’ prime minister says" by Ben Fox, Associated Press | February 2, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Also yesterday, the White House said it was resuming the military airlift of critically injured earthquake victims, having received assurances that additional medical capacity exists in US hospitals. The flights had stopped four days earlier, worrying doctors in Haiti who said hundreds would die without specialized care.
US Army Colonel Gregory Kane said a medical evacuation flight left Haiti for the United States Sunday night, almost five days after the flights were suspended by squabbling over space and health costs at American public hospitals.
The US military had another plane ready to go yesterday with a capacity for 15 patients, said the chief medical officer at the University of Miami field hospital in Haiti, Dr. Mike Sheehan....
When the MSM repeats BS that they know is BS it doesn't help 'em.
Officials in Florida, one of the main destinations for military flights leaving Haiti, say no patients were ever turned away.
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Related: Hub awaits Haiti’s injured
Patrick OK’s donating time
We're better than you, Florida!
Well, maybe not:
"Haiti survivors not expected in Boston
Contrary to earlier expectations, no injured survivors of the earthquake in Haiti are expected to arrive in Massachusetts for treatment, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health said last night. Federal authorities told Massachusetts health officials that they will airlift patients to hospitals in the South. “They still want us to be on alert,” said Jennifer Manley of the Department of Public Health. “But right now, Florida and Georgia do have some capacity in their hospital system.’’
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Interesting that the retraction is a brief but the announcement a Metro lead.
"Rules entangle many striving to return to US from Haiti" by Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | February 3, 2010
Jenny Ulysse of Boston, a US permanent resident, was visiting family when the earthquake hit. Ulysse lost her green card in the rubble and is stuck in Haiti for now. (David L. Ryan/ Globe Staff)
Three weeks after she was nearly buried alive by the earthquake in Haiti, Jenny Ulysse, 20, spends her days looking after her younger stepsiblings, including a 10-month-old baby. She sleeps outside in a church parking lot, and uses homemade lemon salve to treat her badly injured ankle.
All the while, her mind is churning, searching for a way to get back home to Boston.
Ulysse, who was visiting family in Haiti when the quake hit, is a permanent resident of the United States, but not a citizen - a status that leaves her ineligible for evacuation assistance.
Her quandary is one of hundreds of complex dilemmas still faced by American families, according to aid groups and legislators, who say the onslaught of requests for help has barely slackened since the Jan. 12 disaster....
In many cases, there is little anyone can do....
Permanent residents are legal immigrants who have been given permission to live and work in the United States. They usually acquire that status by being sponsored by an employer or family member. Permanent residents may not vote and must wait five years before applying for citizenship....
Why does this government care more about immigrants than its own citizens?
