McDonald’s, bus station convert into Venezuela quake clinics

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela – Four bags of IV fluid hang from the ceiling of a McDonald’s restaurant converted into a clinic in the aftermath of the two earthquakes in Venezuela, where thousands are flocking to makeshift health centres in the disaster’s epicentre.

The double earthquake, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, struck La Guaira state, which lacks the capacity for mass hospital care after widespread destruction, scores of collapsed buildings and more than 2,600 deaths.

A McDonald’s restaurant in the hard-hit Caraballeda area is receiving dozens of people with “hypertensive crises, anxiety attacks and diarrhoeal symptoms”, Karlys Figueroa, a 33-year-old surgeon and volunteer in disaster relief efforts, told AFP.

The facility has become one of the makeshift field hospitals, with a triage area, a pharmacy, a storage area and spaces for psychological and veterinary care.

More than 30 doctors like Figueroa are treating the victims there.

At the counter where the famous hamburgers were once served, donated arepas and sandwiches are now handed out, and the ice cream parlour has been transformed into a shelter for rescued animals.

Nearly 4,000 patients have been treated at another makeshift health centre set up inside a bus terminal in Catia La Mar.

The first victims were taken to just two hospitals, which were overwhelmed within hours after one of Latin America’s worst earthquake disasters.

Iverson Medina received treatment on a stretcher inside a large tent at the bus station, now furnished with medical equipment provided by private funds.

A splint covered his right leg and left ankle, which were injured after spending 16 hours trapped in the rubble of his building.

“I was very scared because I thought they weren’t going to rescue me. It was only after I saw the firefighters and everything that I calmed down,” the 13-year-old told AFP, accompanied by his sister.

Medina and a cousin survived, but he witnessed the deaths of his grandmother and another cousin.

More than 2,600 people have died so far, according to official figures.

Medina is one of the more than 12,600 injured in the quake, according to the authorities.

“It was horrible, dead bodies in the street, the morgue couldn’t keep up, the dead were out in the street, the decomposition,” said Maria Jose Pino, an obstetrician-gynaecologist who works at the health centre in the station.

Pino also survived the earthquake. She said that a seismic alert on her cellphone saved her life by allowing her to get to the exit of her home. With an injured leg, she has been attending to patients non-stop since the beginning of the disaster response.

“I feel that despite what I did, it’s like I didn’t do anything,” she said. “There weren’t enough hands, there wasn’t enough help.”

The UN has said the risk of epidemic diseases is growing as the displaced fill shelters following the total collapse of more than 150 buildings in La Guaira.

In recent days, doctors have treated patients with diarrhoea, dysentery, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, which are raising alarms at the facility, said Antonio Olaizola, a medical doctor.

“We already have infectious processes stemming from this event,” he said. “The issue of overcrowding right now is critical for these types of infectious diseases.” AFP