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