A photo of surgeons operating only by the lights of their cell phones in Puerto Rico has emerged on Twitter.
Hospitals in the US territory are struggling to care for patients in the absence of electricity, one month after Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
Former Puerto Rico governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla tweeted the photo, writing: ‘This is what POUTS calls a 10!’
He tweeted the picture on the same day that the President gave his administration’s response to the hurricane full marks during a meeting with current Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló at the White House.
Former Puerto Rico governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla tweeted a photo of surgeons in Puerto Rico operating only by the lights of their cell phone flashlights on Thursday
The state-of-the-art US naval hospital ship the USNS Comfort, meanwhile, is anchored of the shore of Puerto Rico. Many of its beds remain empty, even as hospitals struggle to handle their patients.
It’s unclear where exactly in Puerto Rico the picture was taken, or what kind of surgery was being performed.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 percent of the island is still without power. Several Twitter commenters questioned why more patients weren’t aboard the USNS Comfort.
Others applauded the surgeons for using techniques that compare to battlefield trauma surgeries.
NBC reported that the power grid will have to be rebuilt from scratch and that parts Puerto Rico may be left without power through mid-December.
In lieu of infrastructural power, many of Puerto Rico’s hospitals have been running on generators, some of which have been provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
But fuel supplies are also being rationed there, leading to a 25 percent reduction in hospitals’ operational hours, the New York Times reported.
The USNS Comfort arrived in Puerto Rico earlier this month. The hospital ship has 250 beds, but most of them reportedly remain empty as downed communications prevent patients from being transported to the ship
Functioning without or with very limited power supplies, hospitals have been forced to resort to creative solutions like the photographed surgeons, using their cell phones to light surgeries. Power regularly cuts out until the generators can be refilled.
Patients with diabetes who cannot get their labs and insulin have been left particularly vulnerable. Without consistent power supplies – or ways to even get to hospitals for treatment – many dialysis and cancer patients have been unable to get their regular treatments.
Organizations and individuals like Pitbull have been raising money to send private planes to Puerto Rico to transport these patients to the US so that they will not have to forego their vital treatments.
The longer the island goes without power, however, the more vulnerable people – especially children, the elderly, and those who are already sick – there will be to the insidious spread of infectious diseases.
In an effort to relieve the strained hospitals, the USNS Comfort was dispatched to San Juan, Puerto Rico earlier this month. It is anchored off the shore, and fully equipped with scanners and facilities for surgery.
CNN reported on October 17 that only about one third of the ship’s 250 beds were in use.
FEMA’s update, released that day says that 100 patients have been treated on the ship, and a that 14 combat support hospitals are now operational in Puerto Rico.
But the report also said that of the 64 operational hospitals in Puerto Rico, 41 are on the power grid, which is apparently still unstable and three are on generators. It does not give the statuses of the remaining 20 hospitals, and says that three are not open.
Along with the power grid, telecommunications remain down or intermittent in Puerto Rico. This may be why it’s taking as much as three days, according to reports, to get critically ill patients from hospitals to the USNS Comfort.