The scenes from Haiti on the evening news are pretty gruesome. It is hard for me to understand how come it is taking so much time for basic supplies like food and water to reach the people that desperately need them when the news networks keep showing supplies coming in the tons, plane after plane, but not making it off the airport tarmac; something is amiss.
The past two nights, the networks were showing doctors using garage saws to cut off limbs and rum to sterilize those saws; where are the medical supplies?
Last night, ABC News showed a field hospital from Israel. They came the night before, set up and started treating patients – huh?
Not only was this a field hospital, it had specialty tents; one for pediatrics, a maternity tent, an orthopedic tent and even an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Where in the hell was the American field hospital?
I was trained as a medic during Vietnam and we were trained to practice field medicine. Field hospitals were organized in a triage mode where you treated those that could be treated and passed on those that were too badly hurt; remember MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) on TV from the Korean War?
During the Iraq war, the field hospitals basically saved everyone no matter how critical; we got that good at field medicine so where are we in Haiti? Maybe we are so thinly stretched by Iraq and Afghanistan that we don’t have any more field hospital units left; look how we handled Katrina on our own soil.
The French unit “Doctors Without Borders” were in Haiti and the French government was sending a complete field hospital and the Israelis were there as seen on the news but the only American doctor I saw on the news was Richard Besser, the ABC medical correspondent who couldn’t help anyone because he was just reporting and trying to look hunky for the cameras.
I guess I am just disappointed in our effort so far. All I see is Bill Clinton walking about, highly paid reporters and news anchors walking about trying to show compassion and next will come the politicians from around the world trying to personally asses the situation on the ground – what happened to passing out bottles of water?
Everyone is collecting money for Haiti, staging all sorts of money making events for the victims in Haiti. Yes, in the long run there will be a big need for money to build up the city and country again but right now it is as simple as getting the supplies off the airport tarmac and into people’s hands; we will rebuild later.
I would be very careful where I donate my relief funds since there are many shysters out there that sound very legitimate; I don’t even trust the Red Cross which has been known to use money donated for a specific cause like Haiti relief, for other Red Cross needs such as administrative costs.
There will be a need for housing; a lot of housing to shelter the people before serious rebuilding can be undertaken and lots of food and water for a very long time – now that will take some money.
The past two nights, the networks were showing doctors using garage saws to cut off limbs and rum to sterilize those saws; where are the medical supplies?
Last night, ABC News showed a field hospital from Israel. They came the night before, set up and started treating patients – huh?
Not only was this a field hospital, it had specialty tents; one for pediatrics, a maternity tent, an orthopedic tent and even an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Where in the hell was the American field hospital?
I was trained as a medic during Vietnam and we were trained to practice field medicine. Field hospitals were organized in a triage mode where you treated those that could be treated and passed on those that were too badly hurt; remember MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) on TV from the Korean War?
During the Iraq war, the field hospitals basically saved everyone no matter how critical; we got that good at field medicine so where are we in Haiti? Maybe we are so thinly stretched by Iraq and Afghanistan that we don’t have any more field hospital units left; look how we handled Katrina on our own soil.
The French unit “Doctors Without Borders” were in Haiti and the French government was sending a complete field hospital and the Israelis were there as seen on the news but the only American doctor I saw on the news was Richard Besser, the ABC medical correspondent who couldn’t help anyone because he was just reporting and trying to look hunky for the cameras.
I guess I am just disappointed in our effort so far. All I see is Bill Clinton walking about, highly paid reporters and news anchors walking about trying to show compassion and next will come the politicians from around the world trying to personally asses the situation on the ground – what happened to passing out bottles of water?
Everyone is collecting money for Haiti, staging all sorts of money making events for the victims in Haiti. Yes, in the long run there will be a big need for money to build up the city and country again but right now it is as simple as getting the supplies off the airport tarmac and into people’s hands; we will rebuild later.
I would be very careful where I donate my relief funds since there are many shysters out there that sound very legitimate; I don’t even trust the Red Cross which has been known to use money donated for a specific cause like Haiti relief, for other Red Cross needs such as administrative costs.
There will be a need for housing; a lot of housing to shelter the people before serious rebuilding can be undertaken and lots of food and water for a very long time – now that will take some money.
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