Colombia earthquake: Hospitals adapt to save lives amid widespread damage
Earthquake damages Cali’s hospitals, forcing medical staff to prioritize critical patients as rescue teams work nonstop. Cali, Colombia – At the University Hospital of the Valle Evaristo Garcia, health workers in blue scrubs moved briskly through the courtyard on Wednesday, beneath a white facade split by deep fissures. The rear of the hospital – a major public medical centre in Colombia’s Cali – had partially collapsed on Monday, after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the west of the country, killing at least 273 people and injuring at least 3,800 others. The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said 377 people are still missing as the crucial three-day rescue window passes. Carlos Naranjo, a general practitioner at the hospital, said some 50 percent of the facility was damaged. “There is extensive structural damage; some walls are no longer stable, some ceilings have collapsed, and it is still dangerous to walk through,” he told Al Jazeera.
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Scoop News DeskColombia · Published Updated
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The city averted disaster despite the collapse of key health institutions by enacting a strategy to boost the capacity of the institutions less affected by the earthquake, officials said. At least 96 died here, while 1,224 others were injured and 111 are officially missing. The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday that the “hospital system has stabilised as patients have been discharged and the number of new admissions has decreased”. These include utilising operating rooms that were previously not in use and recovery areas – where patients go after surgery – that were partially or fully closed before the earthquake.
