One year after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the island continues its struggle to rebuild. From an outdated and battered power grid, to a crumbling infrastructure and a health system in disarray, the state of the island before the hurricane was already dire, and it remains increasingly so since last year’s catastrophic storm. To date, most of the major city centers have power and electricity. But many of the smaller rural areas remain without these vital resources.
The island of Vieques was hard hit by Maria, and its only medical center, which included a dialysis clinic, was destroyed. Given the extensive damage, officials closed the clinic and subsequently ordered it to be demolished. This has proven fatal for kidney patients on Vieques, who now must fly to San Juan for treatment. Talking Points Memo reports that, of 15 kidney patients who were regularly being flown to the Puerto Rican mainland for dialysis, five have died in the last year. Though the causes of their deaths have varied, advocates are concerned that the arduous trip back and forth has been a contributing factor.
One year after the destruction of the dialysis center, it seems that there are no plans to rebuild it. And the situation appears to be getting worse.
A mobile unit, purchased by federal officials to provide dialysis on Vieques, is stuck more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) away, in California; the Renal Council, which is paying for the dialysis flights, says it will run out of money to do so by month’s end.
The cost to the Renal Council is $12,400 a month, which includes the price of flights, a paramedic to accompany patients, and food. It was FEMA who originally took on the responsibility for flying the patients back and forth, but it subsequently withdrew to take on other missions. That left non-profit organizations to pick up the bill. Often, patients ended up taking a ferry back and forth, a form of transportation that is unreliable due to the poor condition of the boats and the lack of reserved seats.
Many of the residents of Vieques are struggling economically and cannot afford to leave for locations with better access to treatment. But after a year of having to travel back and forth for dialysis. the patients are tired and weak and wondering when Vieques will get another clinic. Though the flights to San Juan are less than a half an hour, taking them requires travel to the Vieques airport early in the morning (no easy task from some areas of the island); waiting in the airport for a flight which may get cancelled due to weather; transport to the dialysis clinic; several hours of treatment; and then a return home nearly 12 hours later.
Doing this three times a week takes a toll on the physical and mental health of the kidney patients. They are right to be angry about the lack of medical treatment on Vieques—especially because the Puerto Rican government doesn’t seem to have a tenable plan for building a new one. And there are no answers about how to get money to the Renal Council to continue the flights to San Juan for treatment.
“Where is the conscience? Where is the humanity?” [Daisy Cruz, mayor of Vieques, said]. “It’s always, ‘We don’t have the money, we don’t have the money, we don’t have the money.’ But they’re putting at risk lives that we could prolong.”
Cruz is right. There is a complete lack of humanity in how the local and federal governments are treating hurricane survivors. It’s unconscionable. People are dying because of inaction, and no one seems willing to do anything about it.