In the heart of gang territory in Haiti’s capital, a woman convulsed and went limp in a hospital. Doctors and nurses rushed to save her, but they faced a dangerously low oxygen level of 84% and a lack of key medicine to treat convulsions. The familiar scene unfolds daily at hospitals and clinics across Port-au-Prince, where life-saving medication and equipment are dwindling or absent as gangs tighten their grip.
Haiti’s health system has long been fragile, but it’s now nearing total collapse after gangs launched coordinated attacks on February 29, targeting critical infrastructure. The violence has forced several medical institutions and dialysis centers to close, including Haiti’s largest public hospital. The Hospital of the State University of Haiti, located in downtown Port-au-Prince, was supposed to reopen on April 1 after closing when the attack began, but gangs have infiltrated it.
One of the few institutions still operating is Peace University Hospital, located south of the shuttered airport. From February 29 to April 15, the hospital treated some 200 patients with gunshot wounds, and its beds remain full. “We urgently need fuel because we operate using generators. Otherwise we run the risk of closing our doors,” said hospital director Dr. Paul Junior Fontilus in a statement.
More than 2,500 people were killed or wounded across Haiti from January to March, a more than 50% increase compared with the same period last year, according to a recent U.N. report. Even if a hospital is open, sometimes there is little or no medical staff because gang violence erupts daily in Port-au-Prince, forcing doctors and nurses to stay at home or turn around if they encounter blocked roads manned by heavily armed men.
The spiraling chaos has left a growing number of patients with cancer, AIDS, and other serious illnesses with little to no recourse. Gangs have also looted and set fire to pharmacies in the capital’s downtown area.
Doctors Without Borders has run out of many medications used to treat diabetes and high blood pressure, and asthma inhalers are nowhere to be found in the capital, said Dr. Rachel Lavigne, a physician with the medical aid group. “We improvise and we do our best for the people here,” she said.
People’s health is worsening because the daily medication they need for their chronic conditions is not available, warned Doctors Without Borders project coordinator Jacob Burns. “It becomes acute and then they run out of options,” he said. “For certain people, there are very, very few options right now.”
Despite the pressing need for medical care, the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Cite Soleil has been forced to cut the number of outpatients it treats daily from 150 to 50, Burns said, though all emergencies are attended to. Scores of people line up outside the hospital each day, risking being shot by gang members who control the area as they await medical care.
On Friday morning, 51-year-old Jean Marc Baptiste shuffled into the emergency room with a bloody bandage on his right hand. He said police in an armored vehicle shot him the previous day as he was collecting wood to sell as kindling in an area controlled by gangs. Once inside, nurses removed the bandage to reveal a gaping wound in his thumb as he cried out in pain. Lavigne told him he needed a plastic surgeon, which the hospital does not have, and ordered X-rays to ensure there was no fracture.
On average, the Cite Soleil hospital sees three wounded people a day, but sometimes it’s up to 14 now, staff said. Recently, five people wounded by bullets arrived at the hospital after spending all night inside a public bus that couldn’t move because of heavy gunfire, Burns said. “Cite Soleil was long the epicenter of violence,” he said. “And now violence is so widespread that it’s become a problem for everyone.”
