Gunshot victims overwhelm Guatemala emergency room

[Bacchus39]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101227/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_guatemala_emergency_room_photo_pkg

GUATEMALA CITY – Many nights, especially on weekends and paydays, the main public hospital in this violence-wracked Central American capital is flooded with patients suffering from stabbing or gunshot wounds.

Massive numbers of cases have stretched the San Juan de Dios Hospital, Guatemala City's largest, to the breaking point. The medical facility, along with the city's Roosevelt Hospital, treated 1,224 gunshot and knife-wound patients from January to November this year.

Guatemala, with a homicide rate of 50 per 100,000 people annually, is one of the most violent countries in the Western Hemisphere, exceeded only by Honduras, El Salvador and Venezuela. Health Minister Ludwig Ovalle says treating victims of violence costs about $44 million, or about 10 percent of the department's total annual budget.