Haiti: Report from the capital's main hospital
Louis Belanger, Oxfam spokesperson. This is more of a personal podcast. I came to the general hospital in Port-au-Prince to do a quick TV interview, and I just took the occasion to walk around the hospital. I don't think I've ever seen this in my life, I mean there's hundreds of people in hospital beds with all kinds of injuries - old, young, mothers... There's quite a few visitors. I think they're trying to control that part of it. There's a lot of broken feet, a lot of people have knee(?) injuries - so either rubble fell on their legs, or they sort of ran away and stepped on something they shouldn't have. There's something to cover them, but that's pretty much it. People have a few bedsheets to cover themselves... And just a lot of people in pain. A lot of amputations that I've seen. I've seen maybe two dozens of amputations. I'm looking at a little boy now who must be, I don't know, 2 years old, with a broken arm, and his mother is feeding him. There was also people with the Red Cross who were taking a young girl away and she just held on to the doctor so that he wouldn't go away just because she really needed medical treatment. So she must have been, I don't know, 14 years old. I think both her legs were broken. I've seen a lot of newborns as well. Mothers just come to the hospital to give birth just because they didn't want to do it at home. Some are injured, but some are okay, and I'm looking at a little baby here, maybe a day or two old... The mother seems to be pretty pleased with him paying attention to her and smiling so that's good. But it's pretty heartbreaking to see people sleeping on mattresses with broken bones, and really in pain like this. There's a lot of doctors, probably not enough, and nurses that are treating people. But as soon as they see a foreigner, they think that they are doctors and they call for you to come and look at them. It seems today has been the first analysis of all of them, you know they've been looked at at least once, they all have a sheet or two of paper to have a follow up and an assessment of where the treatment has been. So, yeah, it's a difficult sight to see. The US military are at the gates, making sure that not too many people come in so that people and doctors can... so they're trying to manage visitors. You know people have one or two people next to them maximum, so it's probably their mother or their wife, or brother or sister, to try and bring them some comfort, bring them some food. So there's a huge queue outside. People seem to be a little unhappy and you can understand that, they want to bring some help to their loved ones. So that's my podcast. Just wanted to update you. Oxfam does not provide first aid care per se, we provide water, sanitation, so it is related. These are people with serious wounds... Nonetheless I wanted to update you for today, so this is my podcast from Port-au-Prince's main hospital. Thanks.
Louis Belanger, Oxfam spokesperson. This is more of a personal podcast. I came to the general hospital in Port-au-Prince to do a quick TV interview, and I just took the occasion to walk around the hospital. I don't think I've ever seen this in my life, I mean there's hundreds of people in hospital beds with all kinds of injuries - old, young, mothers... There's quite a few visitors. I think they're trying to control that part of it. There's a lot of broken feet, a lot of people have knee(?) injuries - so either rubble fell on their legs, or they sort of ran away and stepped on something they shouldn't have. There's something to cover them, but that's pretty much it. People have a few bedsheets to cover themselves... And just a lot of people in pain. A lot of amputations that I've seen. I've seen maybe two dozens of amputations. I'm looking at a little boy now who must be, I don't know, 2 years old, with a broken arm, and his mother is feeding him. There was also people with the Red Cross who were taking a young girl away and she just held on to the doctor so that he wouldn't go away just because she really needed medical treatment. So she must have been, I don't know, 14 years old. I think both her legs were broken. I've seen a lot of newborns as well. Mothers just come to the hospital to give birth just because they didn't want to do it at home. Some are injured, but some are okay, and I'm looking at a little baby here, maybe a day or two old... The mother seems to be pretty pleased with him paying attention to her and smiling so that's good. But it's pretty heartbreaking to see people sleeping on mattresses with broken bones, and really in pain like this. There's a lot of doctors, probably not enough, and nurses that are treating people. But as soon as they see a foreigner, they think that they are doctors and they call for you to come and look at them. It seems today has been the first analysis of all of them, you know they've been looked at at least once, they all have a sheet or two of paper to have a follow up and an assessment of where the treatment has been. So, yeah, it's a difficult sight to see. The US military are at the gates, making sure that not too many people come in so that people and doctors can... so they're trying to manage visitors. You know people have one or two people next to them maximum, so it's probably their mother or their wife, or brother or sister, to try and bring them some comfort, bring them some food. So there's a huge queue outside. People seem to be a little unhappy and you can understand that, they want to bring some help to their loved ones. So that's my podcast. Just wanted to update you. Oxfam does not provide first aid care per se, we provide water, sanitation, so it is related. These are people with serious wounds... Nonetheless I wanted to update you for today, so this is my podcast from Port-au-Prince's main hospital. Thanks.
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