Who took the medicine?

After a long night of new year’s eve celebrations my family and I received joyous news that the newest member of our family had been born. That morning, we all hopped in the car and took the one and a half hour drive from my uncle’s home to the hospital. When we arrived, I was in complete shock. The halls, the beds, the whole thing was unlike any hospital I had ever seen; it all looked outdated and unsanitary. What kind of hospital was this?! There was no separation of patients; everyone, was placed in large rooms and were partially sectioned off. The women that had just delivered were in one corner of the room, while the men recovering from mysterious wounds were placed in another corner. Everything seemed to be in shambles. The organization and placement of patients and unsanitary conditions were not even the worst part, the worst part was that the hospital was running out of medicine due to lack of funding. This was not the reality for this one hospital but for all the public hospitals in Guatemala.

Currently, Guatemala’s health sector is facing the worst crisis…ever. The issue deriving from lack of funds is mainly a result of government corruption. The latest corruption scandal, La Linea involved Guatemala’s former president, Otto Perez Molina and vice president, Roxana Baldetti, where they along with other officials were caught receiving bribe money from businesses in return for the evasion of their taxes. So the money that was supposed to be given to the country was now diving into the pockets of these top government officials.

Well this just sounds like the most reasonable thing to do when your country’s hospitals often find themselves running out of medicine and are ill equipped to perform basic surgeries. How is that logical? I often ask myself what was their thought process; I am curious to know what went through their minds when they were partaking in such a greedy scheme? This is the reality for most undeveloped nations, they are often times ran by individuals that don’t have the humanistic capacity to develop a country because they are simply selfish. Sorry for the rant, but this is a serious issue that directly affects my family and friends so I feel it is necessary to make known of what goes on in a country that is often times overlooked.

To put this all into perspective, so you can get a clear understanding of the ramifications of these wrong doings I will present you with a piece of hard data. The infant mortality rate in Guatemala is 27.8%, which means that for every 1,000 babies that are born 27.8% of them die, so when compared to the United States’s infant mortality rate of just 6%, it really highlights Guatemala’s lack of effective health care.

The idea of a hospital running out of medicine is a thought that would have never crossed my mind. I didn’t think that something so extreme could ever occur because I live in a country that provides me with everything I need, despite the fact that it can be expensive, I still have the opportunity. However, the people of Guatemala don’t have that, they were robbed of that opportunity. Now, as the delivery date for my aunt’s pregnancy lingers around the corner, it is hard to suppress this feeling of concernment. I want to remain positive and hope that everything that will turn out ok, but with the reality of it all, that is easier said than done.