Americans dying in Puerto Rico!

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

Puerto Ricans Call for Aid Amidst Catastrophe: "We're American Citizens. We Can't Be Left to Die"

Six days after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, 3.4 million U.S. citizens in the territory remain without adequate food, water and fuel....

... San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said, quote, "What we're now seeing is that the aftermath is almost more horrific than the actual passing of the hurricane itself"

Puerto Rico's Governor Ricardo Rosselló has asked for more government aid to avert a humanitarian catastrophe, especially in the area—in the interior and areas not reached by relief efforts. This is a resident and mayor of Toa Baja, a city on the northern part of the island.

TOA BAJA RESIDENT: [translated] We don't have communications. I have no telephone. We have nothing. We do not have supplies. In my house, we do not have water. There is no gas. The lines are long...

Puerto Ricans Call for Aid Amidst Catastrophe: "We're American Citizens. We Can't Be Left to Die" | Democracy Now!

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico is higher than official count, experts say

Leovigildo Cotté died after not receiving the oxygen he needed at the only shelter that exists in the town of Lajas on the southern coast of Puerto Rico, which has been without electricity since Hurricane Maria careened through a week ago.

Not even his connections to the government could save him.

The generator never arrived,” said Lajas Mayor Marcos Turín Irizarry, who said he looked for oxygen for Cotté — father of the former mayor of that same town — turning every stone” but could not find it...

... The storm-related fatalities are mounting with each passing day, and official numbers are not counting patients who are not receiving dialysis, oxygen and other essential services.

Among those at risk are people such as Pedro Fontánez, 79, who is bedridden at the Pavía Hospital in Santurce in San Juan and was due to be released even though he lacks electricity at home to support the oxygen and gastric tube-feeding he needs to keep him alive. His daughter, Nilka Fontánez, went to the government's Emergency Operations Center desperately seeking help, but was told they were not accepting patients.

There's no information,” said a frustrated Fontánez...

... The dead are at the hospital morgues, which are at capacity and in remote places where the government has yet to go. In many cases, families are unaware of the deaths...

... CPI sources in half a dozen hospitals said those bodies are piling up at the morgues of the 69 hospitals in Puerto Rico, of which 70 percent are not operating. The majority of the hospital morgues that provided information — including Doctor's Center in Bayamón and Santurce, Pavía Hospital in Santurce, Manatí Medical Center, Dr. Pila in Ponce, Río Piedras Medical Center, Mayagüez Medical Center and the HIMA hospitals in Caguas and Bayamón — are at full capacity. Those hospitals are among the 18 that are partially operational...

Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico is higher than official count, experts say | Miami Herald