Contrast--January 2016

 

(Photo by John Carroll–January 20, 2016)

The photo above is the image of the heart of a six month old Dominican baby with severe cyanotic congenital heart disease called Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return.  This means that the baby is blue because the blood circulating back to her heart from her lungs is flowing into the wrong part of her heart. She was born this way and she is critically ill.

The exam above is a Cardiac Magnetic Resonance image. It gives an incredibly detailed look at the baby’s heart and its abnormal blood flow.  A pediatric radiologist skilled in reading Cardiac Magnetic Resonance for babies is studying the image. There are pediatric cardiologists and a pediatric heart surgeon viewing the scan also.

This is incredible technology and incredible knowledge being used to attempt to save the life of this beautiful baby girl.

Contrast this with the photo below.

Park Cadot “Medical Clinic” (Photo by John Carroll–January, 2016)

This building is the administrative building, church, and medical clinic in Park Cadot on the Haitian/Dominican border. It has a dirt floor. There are no examining tables, no blood pressure cuffs, no wooden tongue blades, no running water, no nothing.

Park Cadot, which is home to several thousand displaced people, is located only four hours by car from the technolgy-laden hospital (above) in Santo Domingo.

In societies where there exists a large disparity between the rich and the poor, health care for the general population is compromised. And in societies where there is less financial difference between the rich and poor, health care for everyone is much better.

(Haiti has the same population as the Dominican Republic–10 million people. However, Haiti has no pediatric cardiologists, pediatric heart surgeons, or Cardiac Magnetic Resonance technology. If a light bulb turns on in Haiti, this is considered a success.)

Do I think that every blue six-month old baby in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti deserve Cardiac Magnetic Resonance technology combined with well-trained medical specialists?  Absolutely yes.

Do I think anyone should be examined in the “medial clinic” in Park Cadot. Absolutely not. Park Cadot needs to be closed down completely. The unfortunate people need to be absorbed somewhere safe, their shantys need to be removed,  and the cactus needs to be allowed to grow again.

How would I pay for all of this? The first thing I would do would be to stop corruption and needless bureaucracy, not only on the island of Hispaniola, but all over the world. Corruption is a cancer that strangles societies everywhere.

There is enough to go around for everyone. We just have to have the will and the hearts to do the right thing.

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts@gmail.com