Venezuela health care crisis: Shooting is just the first pain

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http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/05/americas/venezuela-health-care-crisis/index.html


Valencia, Venezuela (CNN) — When Jose Luis Vasquez was brought to the emergency room last Monday with a gunshot wound to the chest, the worst of his nightmare should have been over. He had survived an armed robbery without losing any major organs and needed only what doctors described as minor surgery.

Vasquez is being treated in one of Venezuela's largest public hospitals, in Valencia, an industrial city about 150 kilometers (95 miles) from the capital, Caracas. Days later, he is still laid up in a humid room at the public hospital. A makeshift surgical drain, made from an empty gallon bottle, draws fluid from his lungs. All the supplies, from gauze to syringes, had to be purchased out of his pocket.

"I had to buy this needle," Vasquez says, pointing at the yellow casing secured to his right arm with transparent tape. "This cost me 1,000 Bolivares. The hydrogen peroxide was another 2,000 Bolivares -- there was nothing in this hospital."-------------------------------------------------

Luis Hidalgo, who's been in a wheelchair with a leg in a cast after a car accident, says he's been awaiting further treatment on his leg for 40 days. He, too, had to buy his medical supplies, and he says they were stolen when he was heavily sedated.

"A few weeks ago I went into the operating room and, when I came out, not only had I not had the surgery but everything was gone."