“This is a good day,’’ said Dr. Louise Ivers, Partners in Health’s clinical director in Haiti. “These are three children who would have died if they had stayed here. It’s the little successes like that that keep us going here.’’
Five-year-old Betina Joseph, who developed tetanus from a small cut on her thigh, was in danger of dying if she could not reach a US intensive care unit and get a feeding tube and oxygen through her locked jaw, doctors said.
“We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don’t medevac them,’’ Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the University of Miami’s Global Institute for Community Health and Development, said Friday.
The White House said last night that US officials were restarting the military evacuation flights out of Haiti after receiving assurances that additional medical capacity exists in the United States and its international partners.
US Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said about 435 earthquake victims had been evacuated before the suspension
Governor Charlie Crist of Florida told ABC News’ “Good Morning America’’ yesterday that he was puzzled by the suspension. He said that 700 people had come from Haiti to Florida over the past 24 hours, and that the state was still willing to help emergency cases.
“It’s all hands on deck here in the Sunshine State,’’ Crist said. “We’re welcoming Haitians with open arms and probably done more than any other state and happy to continue to do so.’’
Also yesterday, the United Nations World Food Program began distributing food directly to women in targeted food lines, largely avoiding the violent jostling that has disrupted aid since the earthquake.
The World Food Program and its partners, including World Vision, borrowed an approach that has worked in other disaster zones. The agencies fanned out across Port-au-Prince, distributing coupons to be redeemed for bags of rice at 16 sites. They plan to continue the system daily for the next two weeks.
