The crisis that Venezuela is experiencing is clearly reflected in the collapse of the J.M de Los Ríos Children’s Hospital in Caracas, a public center of national reference, where the lack of medicines, power outages and food shortages translates into deaths that could have been avoided.

Efe visited the hospital as if he were going to see a patient and witnessed the chaos that generated a sudden blackout that prevented a child on a stretcher from climbing in an elevator to be treated, and led doctors to operate with manual ventilation, according to denounced the opposition deputy José Manuel Olivares.

In addition, a doctor who preferred not to be identified said that three children recently died from a hospital contamination problem “but this is not something that has not happened before.”

The mothers of the children asked on Thursday to the authorities, at a press conference, to respond to those deaths that, apparently, were caused by a contamination infection of the dialysis machines.

The hematologist Susana Pachano, chief in charge of the hematology service at the institution where she works since 2005, told Efe that the hospital is all chaotic, it’s all a game that is locked (locked).

The hospital, in eternal remodeling, contaminated the areas of hemodialysis of the nephrology service and that nephrology patients are contaminated, he said.

He also indicated that whoever makes a tour of the hospitalization area can see the ruins of the place and that a new, complete building of the hospital has black water problems that run through the walls.

In addition, the oncology service is now closed by sewage and patients are, provisionally, for about three years, in what was the cardiovascular surgery service that has stopped working.

Hospital infections are high incidence, according to Pachano, not only because of the water problem but because doctors and nurses have not been gifted “with gloves, gowns, or face masks, that is, there are no barriers to avoid them.”

He indicated that despite how bad this health center is, the people who come to the place from hospitals inside the country “beg” to be allowed to stay because outside of Caracas “they are worse off”.

In addition, he said: “We did not get the medicines that are the right ones, we have had to change the treatment protocols, substitute medicines for others (…) and in that invent every day we know that this will have consequences in the future”.

Another issue is the feeding of patients. Nutritional expert food security Susana Raffalli told Efe that she has reported that children hospitalized in this health center eat a banana or arepa (corn toast) alone.

He pointed out that special formulas for children that require adequate nutrition to their deficiencies practically disappeared from the place.

Pachano said that malnutrition is much more noticeable in the relatives of the sick child because it is evident that they are sacrificing for the patient, and that in the middle of the economic and social crisis that Venezuela has been living for about three years, he has seen as the parents of the Hospitalized children have lost “up to 30 kilos of weight”.

“We used to see malnutrition, especially in parents, but now they are seeing children too,” said the hematologist.

Exactly one year ago the Venezuelan NGO Cecodap urged the Venezuelan authorities to give “priority” to sick children in the context of the shortage of medicines that the country suffers after the death of a ten year old boy who suffered from cancer and It seems that he did not have access to a drug to support chemotherapy.

Hospital infantil J.M de Los Ríos, la radiografía de la crisis en Venezuela