Hospital Roosevelt in Guatemala City

Today there was an article on the front page of the Prensa Libre Newspaper...saying that the biggest Hospital in Guatemala City, the Hospital Roosevelt is in a dire situation.

There are no medicines...or very few.  There is no money. The director was quoted as saying that there was only enough money to run the hospital for one more week.

People who need x-rays etc who should be able to get them for free at the hospital now have to go outside to private clinics...this will be more than many people can afford so it will stop them getting medical treatment.

 I hope that the situation will be resolved soon...this is one of the only places that people can go for free medical treatment or at least very low cost medical treatment.

We sent a family of 11 people to the city last week. 2 adults and 9 children. We wanted them to be tested for HIV . We had already had the mother tested in Panajachel and found that she was positive but we had to send them to the city to get more thorough testing.  Sadly, three of the children, a 12 yr old girl, a boy around 8 and a 3 yr old girl were also positive. The good thing is that the Hospital that they went to will give them medications for free.....I  hope that they will have the medications available for them.

 

As you can imagine, this family is devastated and we are trying to work out the best way to help them. We also suspect that the two older daughters may be HIV positive, one is 6 months pregnant so we are hoping that she will come and be tested.

Sharon

Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES

a registered 501.(c).(3) Non Profit Charity

www.mayanfamilies.org