Gunshot wounds in the midst of a lack of care: the double sentence of Haitians

Olivier Vilminio has suffered twice because of the gangs of Haiti. The first, when they wounded him with a gunshot and the second, when they attacked the hospital where he was admitted, forcing him to leave.

This 31-year-old Haitian, father of two girls, is a collateral victim of the violence that is shaking Port-au-Prince. The shots hit his leg and anus and he has to walk with a crutch.

The treatments she needs are either too expensive or not available in the Haitian capital, so she is in constant pain.

“I have run out of medication. The painkiller you should take is tramadol (a powerful medication from the opiate family), and it is very expensive, 750 gurdas per package,” That is, a little more than five and a half dollars, says Vilminio from the center for displaced people where he lives, installed at the Marie Jeanne high school, near the center of Port-au-Prince.

Like many other residents of the capital, Vilminio does not receive adequate medical care.

Your country is going through a deep security, humanitarian and political crisis. The number of internally displaced people has increased by 60% since March, due to an upsurge in gang violence, and now numbers almost 600,000, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Haiti has recently established transitional authorities, whose main task is to restore stability. Quite a challenge considering that the gangs control most of Port-au-Prince and have attacked hospitals, as well as government institutions, police stations and prisons on several occasions.

A first Kenyan police contingent, leading a multilateral UN mission to combat gang violence in Haiti, arrived in the Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

Penniless

Vilminio looked for staff from the NGO Alima, which cares for displaced people through mobile teams, to see if they could provide him with antibiotics. In the same center, other stories of stray bullets remind us of the misfortunes of the residents.

Marie Joanne Laguerre, 24, was at the door of a shelter when she was hit in the back of the head. “At first I thought I had been hit by a stone.”he tells AFP.

Three months later, the young woman still has not been able to have an x-ray. “I go to the hospital, they bandage me, they give me medicine,” but for the x-raya, “that day there was a power outage,” account. And “Now I don’t have the money to get it done. “I still don’t know what’s on my mind.”

The hospitals that have not closed operate in precarious conditions. Adding to the insecurity is the shortage of fuel necessary to use the generators and the lack of resources.

Jean Philippe Lerebourg, medical director of La Paix Hospital, feels, however, “lucky” because all its services have been able to remain open.

But since the end of February – when the gangs launched coordinated attacks against strategic locations in the capital – the hospital has been “under pressure” because it has had to take in patients that other establishments, forced to close, can no longer receive, he explains.

Buy medical supplies

“We have long exceeded our capacity”, explains Lerebourg. And although the hospital is public, it has to charge patients for the material necessary for their treatments.

“We try to do everything we can to offer free urgent care,” says. “But now, once the emergency care is finished, if you come to have surgery, you don’t pay the surgeon, but you have to buy all the material you need”. AND ““The problem is precisely the ability of the Haitian patient to pay for the treatment,” Add.

According to her “situation is extremely difficult” for the population, since sometimes patients come from “displaced camps”” or have “lost his job.”

The peak of gunshot wounds was recorded on February 29, the day the gangs launched their coordinated attacks, explains Lerebourg.

Vilsaint Lindor, 40, lies in his hospital bed with a large bandage around his waist. A few days ago he was at home, about to take a shower, when a gunman knocked on his door.

“He asked me to give him everything, phone, computer and money,” refers. “They took everything and since they couldn’t take the generator, he shot me.”

“I’m at home and armed gangs are coming to rob me”he laments with resignation.

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