PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — One recent morning, at a hospital in the heart of gang territory in Haiti’s capital, a woman began convulsing before her body went limp as a doctor and two nurses rushed to save her.
They placed electrodes on his chest and turned on an oxygen machine while keeping their eyes on a computer screen that reflected a dangerously low oxygen level of 84 percent.
Nobody knew what was wrong with her.
Even more worrying is the fact that the Doctors Without Borders hospital in the slum of Cité Soleil is running out of essential medicines to treat seizures.
“We barely have the medications she really needs,” said Dr. Rachel Lavigne, a physician with the healthcare group.
It’s a familiar scene that plays out daily in hospitals and clinics across Port-au-Prince, where life-saving medicines and equipment are dwindling or disappearing as brutal gangs tighten their grip on the capital and beyond. They blocked roads, forced the closure of the main international airport in early March and paralyzed operations at the country’s largest seaport, where containers full of essential products remain stuck.
“Everything is falling apart,” Lavigne said.
Haiti’s health system has long been fragile, but is now close to total collapse after gangs launched coordinated attacks on February 29, targeting critical infrastructure in the capital and elsewhere.
The violence forced the closure of several medical institutions and dialysis centers, including Haiti’s largest public hospital. Located in central Port-au-Prince, the Haiti State University Hospital was supposed to reopen on April 1 after closing when the attack began, but gangs infiltrated it.
One of the few institutions still in operation is the Peace University Hospital, located south of the closed airport. From February 29 to April 15, the hospital treated about 200 patients with gunshot wounds and its beds remain occupied.
“We urgently need fuel because we operate with generators. Otherwise, we run the risk of closing our doors,” said the hospital director, Dr. Paul Junior Fontilus, in a statement.
More than 2,500 people were killed or injured across Haiti between January and March, an increase of more than 50% compared to the same period last year, according to a recent UN report.
Even if a hospital is open, there are sometimes little or no medical staff because gang violence erupts daily in Port-au-Prince, forcing doctors and nurses to stay home or return if they find roads blocked and occupied by heavily armed men.
The growing chaos has left a growing number of patients with cancer, AIDS and other serious illnesses with little or no recourse, and gangs have also looted and burned down pharmacies in the center of the capital.
Doctors Without Borders itself has run out of many medications used to treat diabetes and high blood pressure, and asthma inhalers that help prevent deadly attacks are nowhere to be found in the capital, Lavigne said.
At Doctors Without Borders hospital, medical staff recently tried to save a boy with a severe asthma attack by giving him oxygen, she said. This didn’t work, nor did any other type of medication. Finally, they ended up injecting him with adrenaline, which is used in emergencies to treat anaphylactic shock.
“We improvise and do our best for the people here,” Lavigne said.
People’s health is worsening because the daily medication they need for their chronic conditions is not available, warned Doctors Without Borders project coordinator Jacob Burns.
“The situation becomes acute and then they run out of options,” he said. “For certain people, there are very few options right now.”
Despite the pressing need for medical care, the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Cité Soleil has been forced to reduce the number of outpatients it treats daily from 150 to 50, Burns said, even though all emergencies are attended to.
Dozens of people line up outside the hospital every day and risk being shot by gang members who control the area while they wait for medical care.
Everyone can enter the hospital complex, but the medical team carried out a triage to determine which 50 people will be treated. Those with less urgent needs should return another day, Burns said.
On Friday morning, 51-year-old Jean Marc Baptiste walked into the emergency room with a bloody bandage on his right hand. He said police in an armored vehicle shot him the day before as he collected wood to sell as kindling in a gang-controlled area.
Once inside, nurses removed the bandage and revealed an open wound on his thumb as he screamed in pain. Lavigne said she needed a plastic surgeon, which the hospital does not have, and ordered x-rays to ensure there was no fracture.
On average, the Cité Soleil hospital treats three injured people a day, but sometimes as many as 14, officials said.
Recently, five people injured by gunshots arrived at the hospital after spending all night inside a public bus that was unable to move because of heavy gunfire, Burns said.
“Cité Soleil was for a long time the epicenter of violence,” he said. “And now the violence is so widespread that it has become a problem for everyone.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
