Report on conditions at Port-au-Prince hospital

(19 Jan 2010)
1. Wide shot of central hospital protected by US troops
2. Various of load of antibiotics arriving
3. Various interiors of hospital with wounded people on beds
4. Set up shot of Gerard Pascale, of Medecins du Monde (MDM) or Doctors of the World
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Gerard Pascale, Doctors of the World:
"Ninety percent of them need amputations."
6. Mid shot man on a stretcher being wheel into surgical room
7. Close up gangrenous foot
8. Wide shot of operation room
9. Pan to injured woman on stretcher
10. Exterior of hospital, little girl being carried on stretcher
STORYLINE
One week after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, a seemingly never-ending stream of injured people is flocking to Port-au-Prince''s central hospital.
Wounded people crowd the hospital wards and corridors, others wait outside the central hospital for medical treatment or surgery.
US troops guard the hospital in order to prevent outbursts of violence as seen in the volatile city.
According to Gerard Pascale, who works with Medecins du Monde (MDM), or Doctors of the World, "ninety percent" of quake victims need amputations.
An estimated 200,000 people were killed when the magnitude-7.0 quake struck, and European Commission analysts estimate 250-thousand were injured.
1.5 (m) million were also made homeless. Many are exasperated by the delays in getting aid.
A full week after the quake, the capital''s port remains blocked and too much aid must flow through the city''s lone, small airport.
Aid workers have distributed more than 250,000 daily food rations, with about half coming from the US military, according to the World Food
Program.
But that is still far short of the need, and the UN agency managed to feed only half the 100,000 people it planned to reach on Monday.
It said security forces were not available to escort its trucks and some military staff were injured while retrieving food from a badly damaged warehouse.
US military efforts to speed aid through Port-au-Prince''s airport appeared to be paying off after days of complaints by frustrated aid agencies: according to an Air Force General, the airport that handled just 30 fights a day before it was damaged in the quake is now handling 180 a day.
But the international aid group Doctors Without Borders complained that US controllers have turned away a planeload of medical equipment three times since Sunday despite assurances it could land.
Keyword Haiti earthquake

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