I think CNN reporters Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta (whose saved lives by performing surgery) are heroes for the work they've done in Haiti. Cooper, in particular, has not been objective in his reporting. Thankfully. He thinks enough is not being done to rescue and aid the people of Haiti. And he's right.
COOPER: Well, I mean, you sort of wonder, I mean, there is some sort of Haitian government. You kind of wonder where they are. Are they in a bunker somewhere?
Because I mean, they could put -- they could start compiling a list, they could start putting together some photographs. Everyone is sort of like pretending like, you know, oh, you can't say anything about the Haitian government because, you know, they can't be expected to actually do anything.
But I mean, you know, they're adults. They know how to do this. You would think they could at least come out and make some announcements to these people in the park about where to go, what to do.
I haven't heard any sort of official government -- even if the President drove around in a pickup truck with a microphone and a speaker I think an awful lot of people here would be happy. A lot of Haitians would be glad to see their president and glad to hear that you know -- get some actual information because there's not a lot of information being disseminated.
...COOPER: Inflatable that they deploy. I mean of all the people who need surgery out here, they employ these inflatable units to conduct surgery save people's lives. That plane wasn't allowed to land here in Port-au-Prince. Had to land in Dominican Republic then be driven over land here. That must have taken -- I don't know -- six hours or at least eight to ten hours extra not including flight time and organization time.
People die because of these decisions and then you hear that, you know, others sorts of planes are getting in taking out, you know, groups of people. I just don't understand how decisions are being made when the most important thing right now besides search-and-rescue teams is getting doctors on the ground here operating, saving lives, stopping infections from spreading, getting medicine to those who need it.
GUPTA: You know, usually when you ask me a question I have an answer for you.
COOPER: Right. I didn't have a question, that was just like a rant.
GUPTA: I know but I don't know what to say. I mean, it's incredibly frustrating.
And I think that, you know, as a doc and you and I have been on the ground longer than most and seen this happen. We're not making this up. I just don't understand how people cannot -- I'm not saying they don't understand it but they're not making the right decisions. COOPER: Again, I don't want to come off as someone who's criticizing, you know, getting orphans out of here and to parents who desperately need them and will love them. That's an important thing. But just in terms of saving sheer numbers of lives. You could send in -- you could send in a plane load of doctors to go out to every orphanage in Haiti and live with orphans for the next week, you know, making sure everybody has their medical attention and that would still bring in -- get in more supplies than having a plane load, you know, plane loads of people flying out. I mean it would take up less airspace.
GUPTA: The impact would be so dramatic. I mean as doctors we relish this opportunities to have that kind of impact. And I'm sure the Doctors without Borders that are watching these reports or somehow hearing about them have got to be saying we're so irritated by what's happening.
COOPER: I mean, it's not only those two planes from Doctors without Borders -- again worldwide recognized as one of the greatest relief organizations, have had their planes diverted and going to the Dominican Republic it just -- it eats up half a day at the very least.
GUPTA: Yes. And they have to drive this big equipment over the border. I'm sure they're going to arrange vehicles over there, they have to try and get across the border. That can be a challenge.
You and I have done this sort of stuff. We know the details and how hard it can be. Just landing here at Port-au-Prince, they probably could have been up and running today.
COOPER: There are probably doctors watching in the United States right now, who could get on a plane, fly to the Dominican Republic, get a van load of supplies at a pharmacy in the Dominican Republic if they wanted to, drive across here and start treating people faster than some of these aid organizations.
GUPTA: That's right. And you know, I've gotten so many e-mails from people saying exactly that. We can get into a DR and come across the border and do that stuff. Wouldn't it be so much faster if they could just start taking care of people now?
Again, going back to this measured in minutes and hours things as opposed to days and weeks.
COOPER: You actually performed surgery today on the USS Carl Vinson which is just incredible. They saw you were here and called.
GUPTA: That's incredible and everything, but you know what, that highlights the point actually. Why was I -- I was delighted and honored to do it. No question about it. But why isn't there a neurosurgeon? There could be by this point; it is a week later.
There could be a neurosurgeon on that carrier. There could be neurosurgeons within the country right now.
GUPTA: I'm delighted to be able to take care of patients, and I'm sure you're delighted to help people as well. At this point...
COOPER: Right. Seven days, tomorrow is the one-week anniversary, and I mean, I'm a broken record on this. But there are people dying from things that -- I don't even understand -- but they're incredibly simple to heal, an infection.
I didn't even know when I came here that if you break a leg, you have an open wound and it gets infected, it can spread through your body and you can die from that. And people have died from that and that's easily healed.
GUPTA: These are called preventable deaths. And that's the worst thing in medicine; a death that could have been preventable because it's something we know how to do. Sometimes it's easy things to do.
COOPER: I'd like to be able to start looking at who is making the decision about what gets to land. Everybody here is doing the best they can and trying as hard as they can. But it's interesting to me that, you know, a governor of a state gets a plane in no problem to take out a couple dozen kids who could be maintained here safely whose lives are not hanging in the balance and they're not dying of disease and they have enough rice and water and basic supplies to last. You could get food aid to them, sustain them for the next two weeks to a month and I know it would be tough for them.
But in terms of sheer number of people whose lives you would save, you would save more lives getting a plane in of cargo supplies for Doctors without Borders than almost anything else I can think of.
GUPTA: Who is making these decisions?
COOPER: I don't know. We should -- I'd like to be able to try to call.
GUPTA: Maybe we'll try to call.
COOPER: Yes. I'm not sure we'll have phone calls returned at this point.
Anyway, again, a lot of good people here doing incredibly hard work, working around the clock, doing touch logistical work and making tough decisions, but I don't know. We got to start asking these questions.
...GUPTA: Much in the way that happened after the tsunami.
Regarding the aid thing, you know, it was interesting because did sort of say, look, the United States is sort of picking up half the load of things that are going on here. I said, how can it be that the Israelis have already set up these operating tents with ventilators, with pain medications, real pain medications and instruments and we were so far behind?
That was sort of his answer. We're getting there.
COOPER: My sense is that -- what I've heard anecdotally, and we'll have to look into this more tomorrow is that the U.S. military and some of the assets in the United States were sort of waiting for assessment teams to assess what the overall needs are. And because groups are used to working with the host government, in fact there is virtually -- there is no real government here. Not a government that actually meets the needs of its people. You talk to most Haitians, they don't actually -- they've never had a government that actually met their needs or seemed to respond to the things that were important to them.
They've had, you know, generations of dictatorships and now it's a democratically-elected country -- democratically-elected government but it's still not a government that on a level that anyone viewing this program in the United States would expect it actually meets the needs of the people. You know, not enough gets done.
GUPTA: And with medical stuff, you know, what you're alluding to is this idea that you can't wait that long. You know, we're not making -- reinventing the wheel here. We have some data based on previous natural disaster on what the needs are going to be. So to have to come in on the ground and assess for so long, it's simply too long.
And I think maybe people will learn something from this? I don't know for the next natural disaster which will inevitably occur.
COOPER: Again, the point is -- also we have to learn these lessons tomorrow and the next day because this thing is going on. This is not going away anytime soon, and there's still decisions that need to be made. The fact that, again, this plane from Doctors without Borders is denied permission to land tonight at 8:00 when it was supposed to land and apparently it was denied permission totally we're not sure where the planes going to go.
And yesterday this medical -- this surgical medical inflatable medical unit had to go to the Dominican Republic. Again, I just don't understand that decision, and allowing Democratic governor of a state to fly out a group of orphans who weren't severely injured but, you know, who God knows deserved to go to the United States and be united with parents.
