Analysis: Many in P.R. did not have to die from Maria
After Hurricane Maria, many Puerto Ricans with treatable ailments like bedsores and kidney problems died agonizing and unnecessary deaths, according to dozens of accounts from family members.
This was a slow-motion, months-long disaster that continued even as President Trump lauded his administration’s response to the Category 4 storm.
The chaos in Maria’s wake changed the face of death in Puerto Rico.
Young people’s deaths spiked, surpassing the growth in the death rate among the elderly, despite the widespread belief that the hurricane affected only older people and those with preexisting conditions.
Deaths from sepsis, a complication from infection, rose nearly 44% to 325, compared to the previous three years; kidney-related deaths rose nearly 43%, to 211.
On Sept. 13, 2018, Trump described the official estimate of Irma and Maria-related deaths as a Democratic plot to make him look bad and claimed that the death toll was far lower.
The President visited Puerto Rico for about four hours on Oct. 3, almost two weeks after the storm; according to the Demography Record Institute of Puerto Rico, between Sept. 6, 2017, and the day Mr. Trump left the island, there were 640 more deaths than average during the same period in the last three previous years.
In the absence of a comprehensive official list of victims, the stories collected for this project are the only source of information that can help explain the historic increase in mortality in Puerto Rico post-Maria.
Medical data showed spikes in deaths due to sepsis and kidney disease, but they’re only part of the story. Those, as well as other causes of death, rose to 45% from 20% in the three months after Maria: pneumonitis; primary hypertension and renal hypertension; pneumonia and influenza; respiratory disease; Alzheimer’s; heart disease; and suicide.
“These are deaths that could have been avoided,” said Cruz María Nazario, an epidemiologist and professor at the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico.
About half of the hurricane victims in the CPI dataset died in hospitals, which saw a rise in mortality of 32.3%. Many hospitals lacked electricity. Those with generators often lacked the fuel to operate them, according to testimony and observations made by reporters.
In dozens of cases collected by Quartz, CPI and the AP, family members attributed their loved ones’ deaths to a lack of basic medical supplies and services like dialysis and oxygen. Others died in the absence of treatment for chronic diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.
Puerto Rico has one of the highest rates of kidney failure in the U.S. Nevertheless, federal and local emergency plans classified dialysis as a relatively low priority, says Angela Diaz, executive director of the Renal Council of Puerto Rico, a nonprofit that works to improve conditions for patients with kidney diseases.
Orlando López Martínez, 48, missed four days of dialysis because his treatment center in western Puerto Rico was closed after the hurricane. When it reopened, the center rationed dialysis due to shortages of generator fuel and freshwater. López got less than half his usual treatment.
“In the days after the storm he looked pale, yellowish, really bad,” said Lady Diana Torres, the mother of López’s 10-year-old daughter, Paola.
He died on Oct. 10. The official cause of death was a heart attack brought on by kidney disease.