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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Lack of Medical Facilities Poses Dilemma

Lack of Medical Facilities Poses Dilemma - Nicholas Casey, Wall Street Journal.

Seven earthquake victims from Haiti, including a newborn baby, were being treated Saturday evening in a state-of-the-art, 50-bed medical clinic aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson--the first non-American victims believed to be treated since the carrier's arrival Friday morning. Lack of medical facilities and doctors for tens of thousands of injured people in the decimated Haitian capital is one of the major problems facing aid efforts in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake. U.S. Naval officials said earlier Saturday that the Vinson nevertheless didn't plan to take on care of earthquake victims, and was awaiting arrival of a ship with more operating rooms to arrive Sunday or Monday and a hospital ship to arrive a few days later on Thursday. Lt. Cmdr. Ron Flanders, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy 4th Fleet, the headquarters responsible for naval actions in Haiti, said Saturday afternoon that the Vinson's primary mission is using its 19 helicopters to ferry supplies onshore. Using the carrier as a floating hospital, he said, "would completely change the mission of the carrier. That could potentially impact the [carrier's current] mission." Until Saturday evening, the carrier had made an exception for two victims, one a U.S. citizen and the other presumed to be so, Naval officials said. When the clinic was observed by a Wall Street Journal reporter Saturday afternoon, all the beds were empty. Lt. Cmdr. Jim Krohne, a spokesman for the aircraft carrier and its captain, responding to a reporter's queries, said the vessel's mission was "sea-based" and the primary focus of the clinic was to treat American citizens. Others, including Haitians, would be treated if they were sent by military commanders in Port-au-Prince, he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405..._newsreel_world

1 comment:

Jonathan Paul said...

Medical negligence occurs when a doctor, dentist, nurse, surgeon or any other medical professional performs their job in a way that deviates from the accepted medical standard of care (more on that later). In keeping with our car accident analogy, if a doctor breaks the rules regarding how to treat a patient, and does something that is "against the rules", then that doctor has failed to perform is duty, and is said to be negligent. While medical negligence does not always result in injury to the patient, it is still an act of negligence. Similar to a driver running a red light and no accident occurring, the driver still broke the law, and is still negligent. Of course, drivers on the road are subject to criminal laws, and can still get a ticket for running the red light.
For more information, visit at: medical negligence.