One of Leogane’s largest hospitals succumbed on Friday to the floodwaters. Perhaps, ‘succumb’ is misleading; this would infer that there must have been some semblance of resistance to the river as the banks burst and the onrushing waters devastated all in its wake.
On Saturday morning, I visited the hospital to find an utterly dejected American, who ran the facilities, one doctor and complete desertion. Practically alone, they had battled to save vital medical equipment and prescription medicine the night before whilst putting in place an evacuation of the remaining in-patients to the second floor. The new river tributary took its natural course straight through the hospital wards and reception area.
Wilfully accommodated by the hospital corridors, a cascade of dirty river water greeted us on arrival. The American was there pacing about incandescent with rage at the situation, lost for words, other than to curse the inability of his Haitian colleagues to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
He refused any offer of help, arguing that it was up to those who worked in the hospital to take responsibility for what had happened. Having put in place a prevention plan, one week prior to the hurricane, he told us how no one had turned up to work on Friday, nor had they worked on his plan to put in place sandbags, move vital equipment or take any such preventative measure to sure up the hospital. Only one doctor, out of all the staff arrived to help on Saturday.
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