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Quake strains Caracas care
In Caracas, hospitals on the verge of saturation have been treating more than 3,200 injured after earthquakes hit Venezuela, with relatives receiving information “in dribs and drabs.”
“People receive treatment in a field hospital after earthquakes, in La Guaira, Venezuela”
Merlí Gallardo, who has been two days following updates about his husband at Domingo Luciani Hospital, said, “At least here I feel he is better cared for. But we don't know who to believe.”
The El País report describes how the first days brought scenes of collapse, including a case where Carlos Gonzalo said it “took more than a day to get him into surgery” for a seven-year-old boy with fractures of the femur and collarbone and kidney damage.
El País also reports that the worst damage comes from La Guaira, where medical infrastructure was overwhelmed since the day of the double quake, and on Friday main streets were “a hive of people looking for clothes and provisions to shelter in tents.”
Power outage fuels panic
Moov.Mg reports that an electricity cut that began on March 7 affected the entire country for nearly six days, leaving nights without light and days without water.
Jorge de Ávila, a 38-year-old merchant, described waiting since dawn to buy water from a tanker truck in the Las Minas neighborhood, saying, “We had really difficult days, with no services and nothing to eat.”
The outlet says the outage aggravated daily difficulties in a country facing protests, shortages of food and medicines, and even a cash shortage due to hyperinflation, because without power people could not replenish supplies when payments are made electronically.
Moov.Mg also quotes psychologist Stefania Aguzzi, who runs Psicólogas al rescate, saying that many Venezuelans suffer from deep sadness that could rapidly turn into depression, with anxiety levels that eventually become chronic.
Mental health services at half-capacity
Runrun.es describes how families of psychiatric patients in Venezuela struggle to obtain and maintain medication, warning that if Andrés loses his medications, his behaviors become unpredictable and he may become aggressive.
“Stress and trauma: the price of panic after the outage in Venezuela”
The report says the Caracas Psychiatric Hospital in Lídice and the Dr. Jesés Mata de Gregorio center affiliated with Ivss in Los Chorros are operating at half capacity, while in the interior of the country “it is serious.”
Psychiatrist Marcela González, speaking by phone to La Hora de Venezuela, said, “Unfortunately, there is an almost absolute neglect of psychiatric services in the public system.”
Runrun.es adds that González argues the situation intensified about a decade ago due to resource and staff shortages and the high cost of antipsychotic medications and other essentials, with psychotropic drugs “only obtained through donations or families must cover them themselves.”
