Clí­nica Universidad de Navarra

Tuesday 19 January de 2010

“The tragedy in Haiti is proving to be my most harrowing experience”

 

The disaster in the American country is the fifth after Pakistan, Afghanistan and the tsunami in Indonesia, where the anaesthetist from the Clínica Universidad de Navarra has volunteered. Alberto Lafuente is now posted in Haiti as the coordinator of the Spanish medical aid efforts.

Full interview (audio only available in Spanish)

The disaster in Haiti is the fifth one where Alberto Lafuente Jiménez, anaesthetist at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and member of the emergency services, has volunteered to help. The previous ones were: the war in Afghanistan, as well as the earthquakes in Pakistan (October 2005) and Indonesia (tsunami in June 2006 and the earthquake in 2009). Despite his wealth of experience, the situation in Haiti has really caused an impression on him: “I can assure you it is the most intense thing I’ve seen in my life (…). It is really the most horrific thing I´ve seen, although I think all the members of the Spanish contingent are coping very well, with lots of dignity”, were Alberto Lafuente´s words in the early hours of yesterday.

12h working days, not having proper meals, the intense heat and the precarious general situation, is taking its toll on the personnel deployed to Haiti, who are beginning to show signs of exhaustion. Dr Lafuente has a positive attitude at all times and he stresses that: “the effort that is going into this is well worth it for all these people. If we are not able to give a little bit of ourselves for the people of Haiti who are suffering so much, it wouldn’t have meant much to have studied medicine, or many other things”.

Supplies, security and disease

After 5 days in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, Alberto Lafuente comments how the supplies of water, electricity and communications are adequate for the humanitarian aid forces, but for the population they are more limited. “Little by little, an effort is being made for basic supplies to reach the population, but it is difficult, because this country has suffered a complete breakdown of its infrastructures, on top of the underlying situation of extreme poverty prior to the earthquake”, describes Lafuente.

Nevertheless the clinician from Pamplona wanted to pass on a positive message and reassure the families of all the Spanish volunteers working in Haiti at present: “There are lots of people helping here, and we are all well and in good spirits. We are very proud of the work we are doing”, he emphasized. Regarding volunteer security he assured “We don’t have any feeling of insecurity, we can count on the obvious security measures for countries in an event like this, with the UN forces protecting us at all times”.

The Spanish medical assistance, indicates Lafuente, is concentrated at one of the three hospitals that are still standing of the ten existing before the quake. The Spanish anaesthetist points out that the Spanish contingent was one of the first to arrive, after the Americans. During the last five days, the inside of the hospital has been properly equipped, fitting out an operating theatre with the equipment brought from Spain, where they have been operating since the first day they arrived.

The most frequented pathologies treated over there are: “by a long way are the open wounds that are heavily infected, in some cases even with worms, due to the advanced state of putrefaction they present”. In these cases, “we are amputating the affected member, treating it with antibiotics and trying to stop the infection getting worse and developing into sepsis”, he said. Dr Lafuente has found caesarean sections the most remarkable activity of the assistance they are providing, “due to stress and despite the situation, there are children being born here”.

The anaesthetist from the Clínica Universidad de Navarra is also grateful for the solidarity showed by the Spanish people with the people from Haiti, and he singles out the AECID (Spanish Agency for International Development cooperation), part of the Foreign Ministry, as representing all the help coming form Spain “is doing an impeccable job. Its leader, Pablo Yuste, is here every day, cheering everybody on, organising and coordinating everything in a swift manner”.

Contenidos relacionados