‘Only God Can Help’: Desperate For Fuel, Haitian Cancer Clinic Packs Fridge With Ice to Attempt to Save Chemotherapy Medicines

A desperate situation is unfolding in Haiti, as Doctors Without Borders has issued a call for help regarding their charitable medical work there, citing the challenges caused by a serious fuel shortage, exacerbated by interference from violent gangs, and Unicef is warning there may soon be hundreds of deaths if hospitals cannot get more fuel to run generators.

CNN correspondent Matt Rivers reported from Port-au-Prince on the crisis in a heartbreaking segment that aired on The Lead with Jake Tapper on Monday, showing protests in the streets of Haiti’s capital city as taxi drivers have been unable to get gasoline and expressed frustration with the government’s lack of action.

A large part of the problem, said Rivers, was that the “vast majority of fuel” was imported at just two locations but local gangs were “so powerful they have near complete control over this crucial stretch of highway which means they control the flow of fuel into the capital.”

The electricity grid in Port-au-Prince is so unreliable, local retailers rely on generators, but with fuel being so scarce, it was driving up prices “and that’s brutal in a country already dealing with so much poverty.”

Rivers interviewed Kedner Pierre, the director of Haiti’s largest cancer treatment center, about how the fuel shortage was affecting the medical care they were able to offer their patients. Pierre took Rivers on a tour of the facility, showing him an X-ray machine and other equipment sitting idle because there was not enough fuel to run the generator.

The two then walked into another darkened room, using their cell phones as lights, as Pierre showed how they had packed the refrigerators with ice packs in an attempt to preserve their chemotherapy medicines.

“I don’t have enough gas,” Pierre said sadly.

Pierre’s clinic was at least still seeing patients. A nearby hospital, the Hopital Universitaire de la Paix, would normally be packed with patients, Rivers reported, but was nearly empty. Both doctors and patients were having trouble getting to the hospital because of the fuel shortages, and the doctors also feared being kidnapped by the gangs.

“The hospital is turning away nearly every single patient that comes here,” said Rivers, “because right now there’s simply not enough doctors, nurses, or electricity to take care of them. That means that one of Haiti’s largest hospitals is essentially not functioning.”

“The doctors are trying but they cannot do anything,” a woman whose son nearly died from an asthma attack told Rivers. The doctor had to use his phone’s flashlight to get her son on oxygen.

“They have no help. Only God can help at this point.”

You can watch the report above, via CNN.