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January 20, 2010

Group: 20,000 Dying Daily from Lack of Surgery
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Aid efforts have yet to approach meeting the dire humanitarian needs. In
a statement, the medical relief group Partners in Health said some
20,000 people are dying each day who could be saved by surgery. The
World Food Program says it’s handed out more than 250,000 ready-to-eat
food rations amidst estimates some three million people are in need. The
agency says it needs to hand out 100 million food rations in the next
month, but is on pace to only have 16 million available. Earthquake
survivors continue to receive medical care in makeshift clinics around
Haiti. In a video, Doctors Without Borders anesthetist Deane Marchbein
described the magnitude of the amputations being performed.

Deane Marchbein: “I imagine that not since the Crimean War have surgeons
seen and amputated so many limbs. Perhaps the Civil War in the United
States. But we’re talking about a situation that I’ve certainly never
seen in my experience.”



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