Young Haiti Quake Victims Recovering At CHOP
In the aftermath of the US military’s decision last Wednesday to stop flights of injured earthquake victims from Haiti to the hospitals in the US, Global AeroMedical Services (a private medical transport company) and Boston-based non-profit Partners in Health combined forces to fly three critically ill children to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to receive treatment. The military’s decision remains shrouded in a fair amount of controversy; some are attributing it to states’ (especially Florida’s) uncertainty of being reimbursed for the cost of the victims’ hospitalization, but fears of child trafficking have also been plaguing the recovery effort.
While we acknowledge that the dangers of taking action in Haiti can be massive, we feel that the cost of getting bogged down in bureaucracy will be much greater. The three children taken to CHOP likely would have died without the life-saving efforts of Partners in Health. We applaud these quasi-underground private relief efforts and wish the children at CHOP a swift, full recovery.
