Jean-Paul Dixmeras describes his work as a surgeon in Haiti
The day I arrived in Haiti's capital, Port-au Prince, we received a 25-year-old woman with a bullet through her abdomen. We spent four hours in the operating room trying to save her, but unfortunately she died. It was like that every day after that, with standard gunshot wounds affecting the entire population. Like this 18-year-old kid, shot point blank with a bullet in the sternum.
There is intense political instability in Haiti which is leading to an unexpected degree of violence. The situation is worst in Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million inhabitants, most of whom live in extreme poverty. Fights between armed gangs and the police are commonplace and when clashes erupt, civilians are not spared. We treated many women and children who had been shot in the back. These were not stray bullets, or accidents. They had been shot at deliberately as they fled.
MSF took over a private establishment, Saint Joseph Hospital, near Cité Soleil. The hospital was in a terrible state. None of the six respirators worked. None of the four operating tables were intact. The ambulance hadn't been in service since 2000, the sterilisation system didn't function, and there was no running water in the operating room. The generator, which was supposed to take over in case there was a power cut, was defective. We had to operate by the light of our surgical headlamps! In fact, before we even had the time to start repairs, we were immediately confronted with a flood of wounded patients who needed urgent treatment. At the same time we went to work trying to fix up an operating room worthy of the name.
By the end of December we had the premises, and all its existing staff and equipment, fully up and running. The hospital is very near to the areas where clashes are taking place so we receive the patients very quickly. People arrive with gunshot wounds, they are in a state of shock, and they have to be operated on immediately. These are extreme emergencies.
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