A small group of doctors from Puerto Rico - sent to help with the victims of Haiti's earthquake - have made themselves an embarrassment to their country and have undermined their mission. As a result, many of them have already (or will soon) lose their jobs back at home.
Photos of their exploits including posing with alcohol, holding military issued guns, unauthorized pictures with severely injured patients, and what appears to be an awkward, situationally-inappropriate "festive" attitude were posted on Facebook and leaked to a journalist.
Once again Puerto Rico hits the world's stage with an over the top opportunity to embarrass itself (and undermine the mission's credibility) thanks to a small sub-group of the doctors who expressed unimaginably poor judgement.
There is one thing we must acknowledge. In fairness, we have to remember that they did show up in Haiti... they showed up... and I'll presume that they administered some level of professional medical care to those badly in need of it - even the gun toting, alcohol slinging, party docs.
Ignoring the fools' antics, I am quite confident there are a lot of injured Haitian patients who greatly appreciated any level of assistance they received. Without it, they may have been left to suffer or die without any help at all. And not every doctor sent from Puerto Rico treated it like a Friday night in Boqueron.
Admittedly, when I see a photo of the doctor smiling while hovering over a patient with a hack saw, my own inclination is to also question the quality of care. Looking at that particular picture conjured up an eery feeling. Was this more of a humanitarian mission or a doctor who looks like he might have enjoyed the movie "Hostel"?
It has the effect of enforcing my decision earlier in 2009 to decline a surgical operation in Puerto Rico, and to seek it outside of the country instead. A walk near the area marked as "recovery" in a San Juan hospital, in the midst of a haphazard construction zone, was enough to solidify that decision for me a long time ago. These are not the type of guys I want responsible for my life, when I go under the knife.
I know that Gil the Jenius covered this story here, where I then picked it up for a feature. While he does not seem very pleased with the journalist who broke the story, I am actually very happy that it reached a bigger audience. I do hope the stories are clarified by acknowledging that the photos in question show only a small group of individuals, i.e. those recurring in most of the more damning photos.
Gil outlines the response Puerto Rico has made to the effort and acknowledges how these doctors have pulled away from all the positive efforts:
But guess what will be remembered, what will be seared into the minds of people here and around the world? Pictures taken at the scene, posted on Facebook, of Our doctors posing with rifles and machines guns, having drinks, violating patient privacy and even mugging next to a coffin.
The partying doctors deserve to have their exploits aired for the world to see and judge. If anything, I'm hopeful that it will send a
clear and direct message to anyone helping, in any capacity, from anywhere in the world, to treat this situation more professionally. While we certainly do not sentence you to full time doom and gloom, you should know that posing with weapons and alcohol in this type of situation is absolutely idiotic.
These guys could not have become doctors without some level of intelligence, but they did not seem to exercise any of it in this case. Maybe it was the booze...
Thank-you to all of Puerto Rico's doctors who went to Haiti to help, and did so without any kind of behavior that would embarrass yourselves and your country.
The Insider
Links
