Venezuelan doctors return home to give aid amid quake devastation

Venezuelan dr. Marianyi Bastidas says she position her book of job on the run along in republic of chile for a one-way ticket to a disaster zone.

Bastidas and three other Venezuelan doctors who now live in Chile arrived on Tuesday to volunteer in La Guaira, the state hit hardest after the earth shook on June 24.

Two of Bastidas's cousins in La Guaira went missing after the twin earthquakes. A third cousin died in a car accident after delivering donated supplies to survivors.

"My heart is broken," said Bastidas.

She said she used her unpaid leave from her workplace in Chile to make the journey on a one-way plane ticket purchased by an NGO.

"I don't care if [my employer] fires me.… Money doesn't matter, it comes and goes," said Bastidas. "I need to be here."

Bastidas and her three colleagues, who all left their birth country roughly seven to 10 years ago, loaded suitcases packed with medicines and followed a group of 18 Venezuelans — including doctors and rescue specialists — who left Chile shortly after disaster struck.

The first group included specialists like pediatricians and anesthesiologists who took over the operations of recently built medical centres that had yet to open. 

Bastidas said they have a list of 70 to 80 doctors waiting to fly to Venezuela to replace the crews that are already here. They hope to organize a rotation of volunteers to maintain a constant presence in Venezuela.

But first, they have to fundraise to purchase return tickets for their eventual trip back to Chile, where their lives and families remain.

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Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez recently said there were health-care workers from 33 countries and 11 international field hospitals set up in disaster zones. On Saturday, the government ⁠raised the official death toll to 2,954 and ⁠said nearly 30,000 officials have been deployed alongside 3,281 international rescue workers to help people affected by ‌the quakes.

It's part of an outpouring of support that has bolstered the response of a Venezuelan government that has been hobbled over the years by successive economic and political crises along with U.S.-imposed sanctions — which also led to a mass exodus of nearly nine million Venezuelans.

"The land calls," said Dr. Luisana Rivas, who flew in on the same flight with Bastidas, a close friend. "These are our people."

Rivas and Bastidas worked together Thursday in a makeshift clinic set up in a park in Catia La Mar, La Guaira. They met patients in a white-domed tent with the UN Refugee Agency logo on the side.  

At one point, Rivas helped a 65 year-old woman with neck pain; she said she had high blood pressure and diabetes, but was taking no medicine.

"Here is where we are seeing the real needs of the population: patients with chronic illnesses that are flaring, a lot of neck pain, many who can't sleep. They have psychological problems from the impact" of the earthquake, said Rivas. 

"There are some who just want to talk, to be heard."

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In the distance loomed fractured apartment buildings with blown-out windows. Down the road, a state-owned cement plant stood partly demolished, its pillared structures contorted like a crushed tin can. Along the main wall, a portrait of Nicolas Maduro, the former Venezuelan president, snatched by the U.S. During an operation in January. 

Venezuelan Culture Minister Raúl Cazal visited the shelter Thursday morning while Bastidas, Rivas and their colleague Dr. Seymour Sanguino Ojeda prepared medicine and equipment for the day's work at the park. The Venezuelan military is operating the shelter and providing the medicinal resources for the doctors to do their work. 

Cazal's government has faced fierce criticism from segments of the population who have suffered life-altering losses from the earthquake. Some believe the government has failed to properly respond, or is providing resources unequally, favouring those with money and connections.

Cazal said his government has been doing all it can since Day 1, but the intensity of the two earthquakes — registering 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude — would have outstripped the capacity of any government, no matter how rich. 

"There are thousands and thousands of people who have been left without homes and that means we have to build new cities, and build where they have the ability to have a dignified life," said Cazal. 

For the moment, that future remains in the distance. La Guaira remains an open wound. 

Dr. Salvador Jimenez works at a field clinic set up in a golf course in Caraballeda, about 23 kilometres east of Catia la Mar. "I've gone seven days without sleep," he said.

Jimenez hopped a convoy from San Juan de Los Morros, in Guárico state about 200 kilometres southwest of Carabellada, the night of the earthquakes.

He'd heard that one of his friends in La Guaria was missing and possibly trapped. Jimenez still hasn't found his friend, but he stayed as the camp began to grow and he saw needs rise with it. 

"I am staying … until God gives me the strength to finish my duty," he said. 

Dr. Eleidy Acuña also joined a convoy organized by her municipal government in Carrizal, Miranda state, to get to Carabellada. 

"They say a person who doesn't sleep deteriorates physically and mentally," said Acuña. "I think the science, in this instance, is wrong. I think God is working miracles because I don't feel tired."

Earlier this week, Acuña had treated several children who had become separated from their parents. She took photos of them. Later, she treated a woman who said she believed her daughter was dead and buried under a collapsed building. 

"The daughter was in one of the photos I took, she was one of the ones I treated," said Acuña. 

"The woman grabbed me and gave me the most beautiful blessing, and I believe that woman gave me the inspiration and the strength to continue here until they tell me they are going to tear this camp down." 

Reporter

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