The IHH health clinic in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital that was devastated in the earthquake, provides health services to 200 patients in a day.
Mustafa Öztürk, IHH representative in Haiti, spoke about his observations in the quake-hit country. He said “It has become routine occurrence for us to come across bodies and the injured in the streets of Haiti. We are especially saddened by the indifference. Last morning we went for relief efforts to Leogane, a city where almost all buildings collapsed in the earthquake. On our way back to the capital we saw a man lying on the ground. We thought he was dead but then realized he was alive. Nobody was helping the injured man. IHH volunteer physician Ali Yalçın examined the man. He had serious cuts and they had caught infection. We carried the patient to a nearby hospital. There were several Italian aid workers who had come to Haiti for help. But they did not accept the man to the hospital. We treated him and left.
“Every Haitian is striving to survive and refuses to take the responsibility of looking after anyone else. Therefore, no one was helping the injured man.”
Physician Yalçın intervened in the situation in case the man might be alive, acting by his experiences in such cases.
Osman Sağırlı, reporter with Türkiye newspaper of Turkey, assisted Yalçın while he treated the patient.
The doctor first cleaned the wounds in patient’s body that had caught infection and dressed his wounds.
We left some water and food with him and left.
A woman with twin babies came to the IHH clinic in the capital city. Doctors had told the woman to eat healthily, but this was impossible in the present situation of Haiti. She could no longer breastfeed her babies. IHH aid workers gave her in ample quantity milk, infant formula and diapers. We took her to her shelter. She was staying under a piece of cloth used as tent. There were 56 homeless there with nothing to eat. Some of them were sick. We took the patients to the IHH clinic and treated them. We gave them foodstuff.”
The mother had gone dry because of psychological impact of the earthquake and was striving to find milk for her twin babies. She could have lost both of her babies if he had not found milk.
The physicians examined the mother and her babies, and provided foodstuff, milk and other necessities that would suffice her and the babies for days.
