“The first patients began to arrive immediately. There were too many, so many: children, adults, elderly people. The moment I entered the hospital, 10 patients arrived at once. And as soon as they opened the door, they were coming in three, four at a time. We had them on stretchers, in chairs, standing up, on the floor.” The first words of Yesi Medina, trauma surgeon at the Domingo Luciani public hospital in Caracas, seem taken from one of the star episodes of immortal medical series, whether it be ER from old television or The Pitt on streaming.
But it is not fiction at all. The St. John’s Day seismic doublet not only tested the Venezuelan healthcare system, but also its doctors. Many of them became unsung heroes of this tragedy, on the same level as the rescuers. Volunteers on the ground and international brigades snatched hundreds of wounded from death’s very clutches. And miracle surgeons like Medina managed with their science to consolidate those rescues, despite the very serious injuries they suffered.
Yesy Medina, 38, a native of Puerto Ordaz in the east of the country, is an example of today’s Venezuelan identity, rebuilt from tragedies, which has deepened and which, with the same precision as her scalpels, is capable of separating its good people from the demons that also abound. In two weeks of unbridled work, the team of which Medina is a part, consisting of about thirty specialists, has carried out 215 operations, 30 of which bear her signature. In another 15, she has participated as an assistant.
We recommend reading: Delcy Rodríguez appoints Félix Plasencia as the new foreign minister of Venezuela after dismissing Yván Gil
“There were so many people that we started placing stickers on their arms or wherever it was visible. The first most delicate patient who arrived was a young girl who was in an elevator with her family and the elevator fell. She had fractures in her spine and pelvis. The second was an 18-year-old boy who lived in La Guaira. The gas cylinder in his house exploded during the earthquake and the boy arrived with injuries, fractures, and burns. He had 40% of his body surface burned,” recalls the surgeon with such empathy that it seems as if each one of them is already part of her large family. Yesy also works in two Caracas clinics, La Floresta and the Centro Médico Docente de La Trinidad.
More Read
“Many arrived from here, from Los Palos Grandes (several buildings collapsed), but starting at 9 at night (three hours after the earthquake) they began to arrive from La Guaira. Many children, so many. All the crush injuries, open wounds, open fractures that we began to resolve in the operating room at that moment. We performed fifty fasciotomies to relieve compartment syndrome (it prevents muscle necrosis and amputations),” the doctor recounts of the marathon of those days.
Between June 24 and 25, she barely slept for 40 minutes in one of the doctors’ lounges. The emergency rooms were overwhelmed, with six out of nine operating rooms available. Yesy was in charge of eight surgeries during those first few hours and participated as an assistant in six others.
“The most difficult operation? The day after the earthquake, I was standing in front of operating room 8 and I was informed that a child the same age as mine, eight years old, was arriving with crush injuries to his lower limb that had already completely compromised the vitality of the extremity. We had to amputate his leg above the knee. It was the hardest one; I gathered my courage to be able to perform it. Afterwards, I broke down: you identify with it, as a mom… Then I took a deep breath and, well, we had to continue the work; those who followed had the same right to save their lives.”
More Read
Bradian lost his mother and his sister, like seven-year-old Sebastián. His stepfather is part of the Venezuelan diaspora in Spain. Since that day, Yesy visits them in their room to see how they improve day by day, like four-year-old Andismar, who poses next to her favorite doctor wearing a Minnie Mouse t-shirt and her pink shorts.
You can also read:More than 4,500 fatalities reported after the double earthquake in Venezuela
Despite the deep crisis affecting the Venezuelan public health system, the Domingo Luciani hospital, located very close to Petare, one of the largest shantytowns on the continent, has withstood the avalanche produced after the double earthquake thanks “to the Venezuelan, thanks to the massive contribution of Venezuelans from inside and outside the country. Our patients have not lacked anything. I remember that same night, around one in the morning, a lady who arrived at the emergency room and approached me. She told me: I only have four gauze pads and a bottle of alcohol and I want to give them to you. I don’t have the means to buy more, this is all I can give you, but I hope it helps. It was one in the morning and that lady who had nothing, gave me that. In my hands. Just like her, another woman brought five soups she prepared at home. And also many companies and the diaspora did their bit to help”.
Within the national hospital disaster, the Luciani has a reputation for having quite a few material resources, even though the latest Encovi living conditions survey confirms that the majority of citizens must pay for these and prescribed medications out of their own pockets. The field hospital set up by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation has been suffering from huge queues for days, not because of earthquake victims, but because of people suffering from hospital shortages.
“I feel an infinite grief as a Venezuelan. And as a doctor, I can tell you that thanks to my profession, I have spent the tragedy distracted by helping others. Exhaustion goes away, or it leaves you when you see that you are helping someone and when you see the smile of each patient. When they say to you, ‘Doctor, thank you.’ Emotionally we are affected, tired, but that gratitude of being able to help and being able to serve is the fuel that keeps us standing to continue in this work,” Medina concludes.
