Dying Infants and No Medicine: Inside Venezuela’s Failing Hospitals

[StarTrombone]

Source: NYTimes.com

BARCELONA, Venezuela — By morning, three newborns were already dead.

The day had begun with the usual hazards: chronic shortages of antibiotics, intravenous solutions, even food. Then a blackout swept over the city, shutting down the respirators in the maternity ward.

Doctors kept ailing infants alive by pumping air into their lungs by hand for hours. By nightfall, four more newborns had died.

“The death of a baby is our daily bread,” said Dr. Osleidy Camejo, a surgeon in the nation’s capital, Caracas, referring to the toll from Venezuela’s collapsing hospitals.

The economic crisis in this country has exploded into a public health emergency, claiming the lives of untold numbers of Venezuelans. It is just part of a larger unraveling here that has become so severe it has prompted President Nicolás Maduro to impose a state of emergency and has raised fears of a government collapse.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/world/americas/dying-infants-and-no-medicine-inside-venezuelas-failing-hospitals.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

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This must be more of that right-wing fake reporting because not a peep from our friends Sean Penn, Oliver Stone, Michael Moore and Danny Glover

And you know if it was true they would be making relief flights into the stricken areas

I mean they're not just all about face time for the cameras when it's convenient are they?

[ericson00]

1. Contra-Bushism went probably WAYYYY to far.

people on the left, from 10 years ago onwards, starting thinking that if there's something Bush likes, I must hate it, and vice versa. Venezuela is a prime example of such simplistic thinking.

[sweetapogee]

9. hard to believe

that just a few short years ago Venezuela sold heating oil to low income residents in New England states at below market costs.

[ericson00]

11. they shoulda been taking care of their own country

instead of doing PR to a small element of politicos

[sweetapogee]

13. I actually

agree with you, it was a PR stunt.

[Archae]

2. It's the CIA's fault! Maduro and his buddies can do no wrong!

[LiberalLovinLug]

5. The international financial community are under attack and I'm sick of it too!

They are spotless in all this. Its all Chavez and Maduro's fault! No way that a moneyed class would ever stoop to covertly destabilizing a socialist government that nationalized the oil industry. They just sat by and let it happen without any push back at all. Like they always do. I feel sorry for them myself. I wish just once those poor billionaires would fight back. Oh well. They didn't have to do anything because miraculously, the economy collapsed because those damn elected dictators spent too much on education and heath care when they should have accepted their places in the world order and continued catering to the multinationalists demands on their own country. Stupid nutjobs.

[SharonAnn]

15. This smacks of what the U.S. did in Chile in 1973, destabilizing and supporting Allende's overthrow

for 18 years of right-win Pinochet.

After all, Allende wanted to take care of Chileans, but Pinochet wanted to take care of American business interests.

[Marksman_91]

18. So are you accusing Obama of intentionally destabilizing Venezuela? Cuz that's what it sounds like

[GoneFishin]

3. What, no babies thrown out of incubators? No mobile chemicals labs? Right wing bullshit.

There are plenty of infrastructure problems, shitty schools, bridges, toxic drinking water, etc.. in this country.

If you really gave a shit about the plight of the unprivileged you'd stop shilling for Hillary and Henry Kissinger and stop promoting excuses to topple anti-colonial governments to steal their oil and other natural resources.

It's so transparent that it's pathetic. Just fucking stop, then go back to watching Fox News.

[Marksman_91]

8. Says the one who actually doesn't come from Venezuela or lives there

I actually do, though. Born and raised in Caracas. And I can tell you confidently that all the nutty conspiracy theories regarding how the CIA/Illuminati/Lizard people caused Venezuela's economic decline is nothing but a load of propaganda horseshit.

[reddread]

12. lizard people? they have a doctrine?

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/10/40_years_after_chiles_9_11

[Marksman_91]

16. Yes, yes, we've heard the story of how Nixon made Chile's "economy scream"

Doesn't mean that the same applies to Chavez/Maduro's Venezuela, though. Ever heard of Occam's Razor? In this case, the simplest explanation for Venezuela's situation is that its government is utterly incompetent and corrupt to the core.

By the way, if this were like Nixon with Allende's Chile, doesn't that mean that you and many others are accusing Obama of collaborating in a plot to topple the Chavista regime?

[reddread]

17. never let a US sponsored coup set precedent

always station ships nearby in case of unexpected election results.

and most importantly-
take your eyes off the ball.

[Warpy]

4. I am deeply suspicious of stories like this

that howl about the PORE BAYBEES DYIN' LIKE FLIES! It smacks too much of the PORE BAYBEES being thrown out of incubators onto the cold hard floor in Kuwait.

I have no doubt that supplies are critically short there and that Maduro's hamfisted rule is not helping. However, the steep decline in oil prices, which have as yet not recovered, is the main reason Venezuela is in serious trouble.

I do seriously doubt whether the right wing would have done much better except they would have allocated resources upward and prevented any news of shortages getting out.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

7. You do realize that Venezuela has been experiencing rolling blackouts

Without power, respirators don't work. While some hospitals might have generators and fuel to keep them running, I would imagine that other hospitals are in very bad shape.

[mwrguy]

6. Red-baiting hyperbole

[Angel Martin]

14. food shortages in Venezuela ?

all made up lies

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I note that of all the people who will leave the USA if Trump is elected, none are promising to move to Venezuela !

[Octafish]

10. Gotta be bad for the NYT to notice.

Usually they side with the Landlord.