Three-year-old Stefi Pierre giggles with delight as she uses her new artificial leg to launch a soccer ball across the room — a joyful moment with foreign aid workers that masks the uncertain future for her and thousands of other amputees in Haiti.
The girl’s wobbly, shuffling steps are her first on a difficult road to recovery in a temporary rehabilitation center treating victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake, which left Haiti overwhelmed with amputees like Stefi. She and others who lost limbs, some with multiple amputations, now face the practical realities of struggling for survival in a devastated Haiti as well as a social stigma in a country that has never been kind to the handicapped.
Stefi’s mother, Fabian Pierre, said she was more worried about her daughter being shunned than the surgery she would need soon to correct her rushed amputation.
“Once she goes to school, it’s going to be an issue,” Pierre said. “Some people will have a problem with it.”
As many as 4,000 people had amputations from the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that the Haitian government said killed an estimated 230,000. Those who lost limbs need elaborate follow-up treatment because the surgeons, rushing to save as many lives as possible, often made “guillotine” amputations: a straight cut through flesh and bone that did not leave enough skin for proper healing or cushion for an artificial limb, said Bob Horton, a nurse with Merlin, a British nonprofit medical aid group.
Some wounds are infected from inadequate follow-up treatment, an agonizing situation for the often-homeless survivors as well as the foreign and Haitian doctors and nurses who treat them.
While many amputees, including Stefi, remain hospitalized, others have been discharged with nowhere to go but squalid shantytowns, the so-called temporary settlement camps that are home to 600,000 people in the quake zone.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
RSS