Dr. Trivino must use sunlight to examine x-rays since electricity is sporadic in Puerto Rico.
One month after the devastating Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on the island of Puerto Rico, the territory is still facing a public health crisis. And it’s a crisis of epic proportions.
On Friday, former Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro García Padilla tweeted a photo from inside a hospital, in which scrubbed-up doctors leaned over an operating table performing surgery lit only by a flashlight. According to Slate, the image quickly made the rounds on the internet; it currently has almost 9,000 retweets and many speculate that that’s probably because the blurry picture feels like it’s worth a good deal more than 1,000 words. It illuminates just a small sliver of the public health crisis Puerto Rico is currently facing.
This is what POTUS calls a 10! Surgery performed with cellphones as flashlights in Puerto Rico today. pic.twitter.com/5pnK5dkkE6
— Alejandro (@agarciapadilla) October 21, 2017
Millions of residents still don’t have access to electricity or proper health care, and bacteria in the water have exposed many people to disease. And calls for help have gone unanswered besides the few willing to travel to the devastated island privately. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) along with a handful of other lawmakers are calling on the federal government to continue to provide aid to the post-apocalyptic ravaged territory.
“Even before Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the U.S. territories, the islands’ health care system was suffering from the ongoing economic crisis. The islands are grappling with physician shortages, Medicaid programs facing an impending funding cliff, and widespread disparities in Federal health programs—and that was before hurricane season,” the lawmakers stated in a letter. “We are grateful for the public health emergency declaration in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but more can and should be done to help Americans impacted by these disasters.”
The senators stressed that much of the islands’ power and communication networks are out and, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), it will take months before power is fully restored. Hospitals have been forced to prioritize patients, ration services, and forgo elective surgeries. The power grid’s failure has caused more problems than many anticipated, like the stall of relief efforts. Without electricity, communications are non-existent too.
Some 33 days after Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, only 23 percent of residents have electricity, according to Status.pr, which provides daily updates on basic services on the island. While there are still other problems as well, such as gas stations being slow to reopen, and roads getting badly damaged, the power grid’s utter annihilation in the category 4 winds is not just a temporary inconvenience. The different ways that the lack of electricity can set off a cascade of other crises is becoming increasingly clear.
A giant government-owned hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, arrived in Puerto Rico weeks ago to help out, but many people don’t know about the ship. Without electricity, most cell phone towers are down. But even if communications were working, residents can’t get to the port, as many of the island’s roads are impassable and most are without gasoline to power a car. The ship has extensive space and equipment for trauma care and a large staff, but CNN reported that as of last Tuesday, only 33 of 250 beds were full.
The looming crisis seems to be getting worse, not better, and Puerto Rico is experiencing a medical crisis of epic proportions.
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Puerto Rico likes being independent…let them figure it out without USA aid or assistance.
The Puerto Ricans must have refused to pledge loyalty to Israel. Their confusion is understandable. The Pentagons unaccounted for 9 trillion dollars is why San Juan now looks similar to Raqqa Iraq.
the un will not let a disaster go to wast,,watch you water supply or you will end up like hati.
Puerto Rico was huge damn mess BEFORE the hurricane, so don’t blame the storm and Trump and on and on. Talk to the local Gov’t responsible for this shit….same old story once again.
What is going on in Puerto Rico is the picture postcard perfect example of what is happening here in the U.S.
Corrupt professional politicians have run the country into the ground. The U.S. is broke and bankrupt.
All we need is some kind of hurricane and the whole country goes belly-up.
I hold the people responsible. They know what is going on. They let it happen. The people — Puerto Ricans, Americans, Mexicans, the Chinesse, all of them — got the government they deserved.
And now look.
All this must br Trump’s fault. Can’t blam the inept politicians who have had the responsibility to run the government for the last decade!!
I just left Puerto Rico after 30 days of helping out down there and it’s BAD, thanks the local government & corruption.
For more info see my YouTube channel “Prepared 2 Thrive”
-Corey @ Prepared 2 Thrive
Thank you for going down there. This incident may expose the rats in the political sewer their, but if they aren’t gotten rid of, then it’s same old, same old. I feel for the common people, but they should try to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and clean up what they can, even with hand tools.
Agree. The people are doing what they can to clean up & survive. The government is another story. Prepper lesson learn #1,776…location, location, LOCATION. Live far away from hurricanes, and live where corruption is reality low.
-Corey @ Prepared 2 Thrive (YouTube)
I just spent the last 30 days I. Puerto Rico assisting with the relief efforts & created several videos for the preparedness community on my YouTube channel, Prepared 3 Thrive.
They are really struggling in Puerto Rico…huge thanks to the local government.
Please enjoy,
Corey @ Prepared 2 Thrive
Link to my channel:
https://m.youtube.com/my_videos
I’m going to restrain myself on the Puerto Ricans. But God Damn! You morons live in Hurricane alley.
You didn’t build an infrastructure to survive hurricanes.
And you didn’t prepare for Maria.
No sympathy.
Exactly! And do you know who is the expert on disaster recovery in the Caribbean? The big, bad Cubans. Despite their poverty the Cubans always send doctors to help and they also quickly recover from these events.
PRs have much more wealth and infrastructure than the Cubans yet they can’t get it together?
Cubans are used to living without reliable electricity, good medical, and fuel so naturally they can handle a Hurricane better.
Puerto Ricans have always had their hands out, dependant on others to provide for them. Typical liberal mentality. Fuck em.
“No sympathy”
Thats right Puerto Rico —
If you’re looking for sympathy … you’ll find it between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.
The US have no money for you Puerto Rico. A thousand troops in Niger take precedence. These weapons are expensive that prop up the tyranny of a dying world hegemonic police state. Like McMasters, a bunch of damn fools straight from hell. The FBI another sower of criminal treason from its inception.
“The US have no money for you Puerto Rico”
This is true – most of our tax dollars feed our slave owners Israel.
Maybe Puerto Rico should asked for help from them – after all, they can afford to do so.
Puerto Rico was messed up before the hurricane. They went bankrupt before the hurricane hit. The island was without electricity in 10% of the country before the hurricane hit. The Puerto Rican government had to pay the private electric bills, because the people wouldn’t ever pay on time. Corruption even worse than here. (Is that possible?) Truck drivers refusing to deliver relief supplies to their own people. Mayors confiscating relief supplies for their own profit. A basket case before the storm and even worse after the storm. Solution? They’re all going to come here. Damn!
I hope not! Why would we allow them to infect us?
same reason we allow calipornians to infect texas….and arizona….and oregon….and…..
maybe the average I.Q in america will rise if we allow some puerto ricans up here…..
Even in Puerto Rico, there are people who prepared for shtf and some have solar power. This will be a prolonged power outage. It will be interesting to see how long and to what extent their rights will be denied in the name of the “greater public good”. What happens there could be repeated in your locations. The less that is known about your preps, the better. Following any SHTF, people will be asking about your situation;it won’t be out of concern for your well-being.
A car battery, cheap inverter and a few LED light bulbs on work light cords would light that place up all day and night. Could recharge battery with a solar panel.
Hospital Ship Off Coast . Physicians Not Using The Help Sent. Their Own Fault.
I think the real lesson here is the mess that a loss of infrastructure can create relatively quickly. As preppers it doesn’t matter who’s fault, if there was a mess before, etc…are you prepared NOW that there is no water, electricity, food? No? Then YOU are to blame.
PR’s are used to living/getting by with limited resources. The mainland US would be a war zone if that happened to South FL, New Orleans, NYC for this extended period of time. Our fat Arse citizens are used to the cattle trough being filled daily.
Well said. We need to PREPARE NOW.
The 30 days I just spent in Puerto Rico were well covered on my YouTube channel, and will hopefully inspire others to start/continue to prep.
-Corey @ Prepared 2 Thrive
https://m.youtube.com/my_videos
Survival of the fitness,beeznuts. Those wetbacks need a little cleansing of the genepool
The U.S. is in the same position as the Puerto Ricans. The U.S. just hasn’t had the “hurricane” (be it a financial crisis, pension crisis, economic crisis, health care crisis, or a series of Cat 5 hurricanes), come through yet.
Send in the Clinton Foundation. LMAO .
Yep, get that Wild Bill Clinton and his Foundation to load up a GlobeMaster heavy lifter with girls 10 to 16 years old and then fly them to some Arab human traffickers. Call it ‘charity’.
This is what happens when you have a place that is totally dependent on, and accepting of, handout and welfare! PO has been taken care of and coddled by mainland US of A for so long that most residents have given up any thought of being independent. Add to that a political situation run by and for socialist libtards more interested in lining their own pockets, staying in office and bashing Trump, and keeping the populace indebted to them and you have the recipe for disaster given a perfect storm such as the one that hit the island! This is why we prepare, this is why we do our best to NOT be dependent on the government for or security and well being!