PPE For Venezuelan Doctors
Donation protected
At the Jose Gregorio Hernandez General Hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, the doctors and medical staff come in every day to treat Covid and non-Covid patients alike with only minimal protective gear (PPE). The doctors are essentially limited to what they can afford to buy with their own money on their salary of $10 a month, which isn't much. They are exposed every day to covid patients, while only protected by a cloth breathing mask and basic scrubs. The hospital doesn't even have running potable water for cleaning.
My fiancee is one of those doctors. I was able to send her the money ($220) for a full set of gear -- body coveralls, plastic face shield, n95 mask, gloves and shoe protectors. I breathed a sigh of relief, but then I thought of her coworkers, and their children and families, and the older doctors, for some of whom their continued work without PPE will certainly be a death sentence.
The below graphic has been put together by the NGO United Doctors of Venezuela , it represents doctors as a percentage of all Coronavirus deaths in a country -- ie a quarter of all Covid deaths in Venezuela have been medical staff.
Many people, when I've expressed my concern for my fiancee's safety have asked if there was anything they could do. Now that we've figured out how to send money and where she can buy the materials, we can actually turn people's desire to help into a reality and get the doctors the PPE they need.
The initial focus was her fellow anesthesiologists (who, as entubation experts, are often the ones connecting patients to the ventilators), but given the great amount of support (THANK YOU THANK YOU) we reached that funding goal in less than 24 hours and so we're aiming to include the operating room staff and have set the goal up to $2000.
I will leave the final decision as to what protective gear to buy to the doctors, if they'd rather have 30 face shields than 10 tyvek suits, they'll know best. They also want things such as antibacterial chlorine gel soap.
These doctors are so selflessly risking their lives, please help provide them with the protection they need.
Here is the complete set of gear I was able to acquire for my fiancee, that we intend to get for everyone else:
My fiancee is one of those doctors. I was able to send her the money ($220) for a full set of gear -- body coveralls, plastic face shield, n95 mask, gloves and shoe protectors. I breathed a sigh of relief, but then I thought of her coworkers, and their children and families, and the older doctors, for some of whom their continued work without PPE will certainly be a death sentence.
The below graphic has been put together by the NGO United Doctors of Venezuela , it represents doctors as a percentage of all Coronavirus deaths in a country -- ie a quarter of all Covid deaths in Venezuela have been medical staff.
Many people, when I've expressed my concern for my fiancee's safety have asked if there was anything they could do. Now that we've figured out how to send money and where she can buy the materials, we can actually turn people's desire to help into a reality and get the doctors the PPE they need.
The initial focus was her fellow anesthesiologists (who, as entubation experts, are often the ones connecting patients to the ventilators), but given the great amount of support (THANK YOU THANK YOU) we reached that funding goal in less than 24 hours and so we're aiming to include the operating room staff and have set the goal up to $2000.
I will leave the final decision as to what protective gear to buy to the doctors, if they'd rather have 30 face shields than 10 tyvek suits, they'll know best. They also want things such as antibacterial chlorine gel soap.
These doctors are so selflessly risking their lives, please help provide them with the protection they need.
Here is the complete set of gear I was able to acquire for my fiancee, that we intend to get for everyone else:
Organizer
Kris Fricke
Organizer
Mission Viejo, CA