A rescue team helps Hernán Gil, a survivor of Venezuela’s two earthquakes, on July 2, eight days after the earthquake. In addition to caring for survivors, the country’s medical workers face a series of problems in the state of La Guaira, which was devastated by the disaster. Federico Parra/AFP/via Getty Images hide title toggle title
A rescue team helps Hernán Gil, a survivor of Venezuela’s two earthquakes, on July 2, eight days after the earthquake. In addition to caring for survivors, the country’s medical workers face a series of problems in the state of La Guaira, which was devastated by the disaster.
Federico Parra/AFP/via Getty Images
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Federico Parra/AFP/via Getty Images
When the first earthquake occurred, Luz Noguera was in the shower.
Noguera, 36, grabbed his keys, forced the door and ran out into the street in a panic. His first thoughts were of his children and family, and their immediate safety. So, it was survival.
“We met on the main road and stayed there,” he says. “It started to rain, the electricity went out and there was no cell service, no way to contact our families. We spent the whole night on the street.”
Luz Noguera, 36, says she is simply grateful to be alive after the earthquakes. “The day after the disaster, I took this photo with a smile,” he says.
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The last thing on Noguera’s mind was his asthma medication, still in a bag on his nightstand.
The figures that followed the earthquakes of June 24 paint a devastating picture: at least 3,535 dead and thousands more missing. And about 16,700 injured.
As hopes fade of rescuing people alive from the rubble, health workers have turned their attention to the living. With some 18,000 people homeless, doctors must confront a new wave of health problems, the kind that occur when thousands of people are suddenly displaced by heat, rain and dust.
People displaced by the June 24 earthquakes rest on bunk beds inside a temporary shelter set up at the José María Vargas sports complex in Catia la Mar, La Guaira state, Venezuela, on July 6.
Miguel Medina/AFP/via Getty Images
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Miguel Medina/AFP/via Getty Images
“We are seeing diarrhea, respiratory infections, skin diseases, because they are exposed to the sun for many hours,” says Dr. Eduardo Celades, UNICEF senior health advisor.
Dehydration. Asthma attacks. Tanned. The ailments of normally healthy people, who no longer have easy access to their medications, regular meals or running water.
“In addition, there will be risks of outbreaks, such as measles and respiratory infections. This will be our priority,” Celades tells NPR.
Three hospitals suffered critical structural damage and were knocked out of service during the earthquakes, the World Health Organization said. Several others are only partially functioning and doctors and other frontline health workers are among the victims of the disaster.
“The lady who ran the entire maternity program is missing and is unfortunately presumed to have died in the earthquake,” says Ian Clarke, incident manager for the WHO health emergency response in Venezuela.
International aid groups have brought in doctors and set up field clinics to help. A 56-bed field hospital created by the nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse includes intensive care units and operating rooms. Project Hope has created a mobile clinic offering primary care at a shelter in one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, including ultrasounds for pregnant women.
Doctors say they struggled to help the first victims treated after the disaster: patients who needed limb amputations or who had suffered crush injuries or cuts from broken glass. Now, they focus on caring for a displaced and traumatized population that no longer has a functional health system. Doctors in other parts of Venezuela and abroad have volunteered for telehealth services, while other aid groups have focused on bolstering primary care providers and mobile clinics.
“A team of doctors and psychologists travel there daily to provide primary health care to all those affected and offer psychological first aid,” said Dr. Lydia Gordon, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Proyecto Esperanza in La Guaira. “What I see with my own eyes as I pass by all these buildings are thousands of people walking down the street, disoriented, who need help.”
The World Health Organization has delivered six metric tons of medical supplies, and another 28 tons of aid is on the way from its hub in Dubai. Donations included trauma kits, personal protective equipment for frontline workers, and supplies to prevent communicable diseases. The governments of Chile and Brazil are donating vaccines to prevent tetanus, diphtheria and yellow fever. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has sent 36 tonnes of aid, including hygiene kits, cleaning supplies and water filters.
“But even before the earthquake, there were massive shortages, up to 37% of essential medicines in many hospitals,” says Clarke.
Under the rule of ousted President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s economy collapsed due to hyperinflation and oil sanctions. Medical supplies became scarce, vaccination rates declined, and cases of measles, diphtheria, and malaria increased. Many Venezuelans emigrated, including about a third of the country’s doctors, according to the Venezuelan Medical Federation. What remains of the country’s once-robust public health system was ill-equipped to respond to the magnitude of the disaster and its consequences.
“That’s the normal situation. But in a crisis, that increase in demand is exacerbated by history,” says Alejandro Arrieta, a health economist at Florida International University.
Even in normal times, most patients must purchase their own medical supplies at pharmacies and stores near the hospital. It is not an unusual practice in many Latin American countries, but the scale is more extreme in Venezuela’s underfunded system.
“You go to the doctor and the doctor tells you it’s okay, you need surgery, here’s the [shopping] ready,” says Arietta.
This leaves patients at the mercy of price increases and supply problems, which are common in a disaster scenario.
Luz Noguera and her family were among those temporarily displaced by the earthquake and its aftershocks. They spent two weeks in an informal camp near the remains of their sister’s house.
“Some people don’t even have tents, so their situation is even more difficult,” Noguera said. “They sleep on mattresses placed directly on the floor, with their children.”
Replacing her asthma medication seemed like a daunting task, but she asked friends and family for help. Through his nephew, he was able to contact an educational nonprofit in another state, which joined the earthquake response effort.
“It was a race against time to find the medication I needed and the right equipment,” says Nicolle Giraud, who heads the E-VEN projecta nonprofit educational organization that pivoted to help with the relief effort.
She and her team contacted WhatsApp groups to see if they could find the right medication in another city.
“Check the obvious places like pharmacies, but then ask around [WhatsApp] because they were out of stock, it was too expensive or it wasn’t what they were looking for,” Giraud recalls.
Luz Noguera and her family with donations of food and tents after the earthquakes. An educational nonprofit based in another state, Project E-VEN, managed to refill his asthma prescription amid the crisis.
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Eventually, a project volunteer found the medicine and personally brought it to Noguera, along with tents and other supplies.
This, says Giraud, is the reality on the ground. While medical workers do the best they can with the resources they have, it is everyday people who have stepped up to fill the gaps.
“There’s a saying here,” says Giraud. “The good ones are more. Good people are the majority.”
Noguera and his family are safe. He says he feels like he has another chance at life. The only thing left to do, he says, is pray that the situation stabilizes.
“But I’m alive, thank God,” says Noguera.
As the aftershocks continued, Luz Noguera and her relatives spent two weeks sleeping in tents near her sister’s house. “Some people don’t even have tents, so their situation is even more difficult,” says Noguera. “They sleep on mattresses placed directly on the floor, with their children.”
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