Haitians deal with infections, amputations
LES CAYES, Haiti — In the wake of a devastating earthquake, many victims in Haiti are suffering from broken bones that can cause open wounds prone to infections, often leading to amputations.
The risk is even greater in Haiti, where access to health care is limited or people delay seeking medical attention in favor of natural remedies.
The home of clothing merchant Felix Pierre Genel collapsed before he could flee outside as a powerful earthquake shook southwestern Haiti on Aug. 14. He was dug out of the rubble that same day with a broken arm and was among the somewhat fortunate ones who promptly received medical care at a hospital. But even so, he could not escape amputation.
Doctors at first told the 36-year-old they would try to save his right arm. He had surgery to place rods in to stabilize the broken bone. Then came an infection and a second operation.
“Instead of dying, I took the decision of letting them cut off my arm,” Genel said from his bed at the Les Cayes’ general hospital, his right arm bandaged where doctors amputated it above the elbow. “From where I’m coming from, inside the mouth of death, it’s best that they cut the arm off.”
“The risk of infections goes up the longer you wait to get care, and some of that is related to access to health care, not all of it,” said Dr. Christopher Colwell, chief of emergency medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
“If there are fractures or broken bones that are associated with those open wounds, those infections can be devastating and can result in the need for amputation, or, in some cases, even threat to life, over the next days and weeks,” he added.
The magnitude-7.2 quake, centered under the country’s southwest peninsula, killed at least 2,207 and injured 12,268 people. About 130,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches were also affected.
Health care facilities were already at a critical point before the quake because of the pandemic. Many of the injured had to wait under the blistering heat, even on an airport tarmac, for care. One hospital was so overwhelmed that it placed patients in patios, corridors, verandas and hallways.
The ability to get medical attention also was complicated by a tropical storm that trailed the earthquake and the two-day closure of a major hospital in the capital of Port-au-Prince to protest the kidnapping of two doctors, including one of the country’s few orthopedic surgeons.
Colwell, who was not in Haiti, said natural remedies can have varying degrees of success, but some not only are unhelpful, they are harmful and can even introduce bacteria that lead to infected tissues.
In the weeks after a strong earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, hospitals only admitted patients in the most serious conditions. Some with simple fractures that did not expose the bone through the skin left without seeing a doctor, only to return later with complications and serious infections.
The nongovernmental organization Humanity and Inclusion concluded that as a result of the complications, “amputations represented an exceptionally large proportion of the surgical operations” and added, “Some amputations performed under extremely difficult circumstances required corrective surgery.”
The organization estimated the number of amputations at between 2,000 and 4,000, with at least 1,000 people requiring a lower limb prosthesis.
Far fewer people were injured this time compared to 2010, when at least 300,000 Haitians were hurt and the government asserted that a similar number of people died.