PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

There are several hundred thousand people in Haiti who were injured in the earthquake and an estimated 4,000 or more of them have had amputations. What happens with these people after they’ve been treated in field  hospitals? This is a problem of massive size and there is no good answer right now.

One doctor told the Miami Herald this:

``This is the largest amputee and crush wound population the world has ever seen. It's unheralded,'' said Harvard Medical School disaster management specialist Dr. Hilarie Cranmer, operations director at Love a Child clinic. ``But you need a place to put them after you fix them. You can't just throw amputees home. Where's home?''

In some cases, sending people out into the streets, with no place to stay and no one to care for them, could actually be sending them to their deaths. How is it possible that someone who had open wounds from having both legs amputated to care for themselves? How could they even get food and prepare it for eating without being able to walk? Most need continuing care for weeks or even months. The Miami Herald reporter summed up the situation this way:

“...as the quake dust settles and many exhausted surgeons leave for the comforts of home, it remains unclear what will become of the patients who have nowhere to go to recover -- and not enough doctors to change their bandages or teach them to walk with one leg.”

This is one of the most critical problems in the post earthquake recovery situation, among a large list of critical matters. There has to be a better solution found and found soon, or the work in saving thousands of people would be turned on its end as they suffer, and die, in the fields and streets.

Doug Terry, 2.18.10

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