Haitian hospitals filling
with abandoned children
PORT-AU-PRINCE. Haiti (AP) — The skeletal baby boy lay across
the lap of a woman who had found him in front of her house, left for
the pigs to eat
"The mother dropped the child in front of her home." Dr Marie
Franciaque. director of Grace Children's Hospital, said Monday after
she saw the woman waiting for a chest X-ray for the frail child.
"So this woman picked up the child and brought him here for
help."
The infant, just under 5 pounds, struggled to survive, ribs rising
and falling with each labored breath
He is part of a rising trend of children abandoned at the hospital
in the last few months by their poverty-stricken families, Francisque
said. She blamed the increase on Haiti's worsening economic situa
tion.
Already living in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,
many Haitians wore cast out of work when an international trade
embargo closed assembly plants in late May.
Four babies went left at the hospital last week, said Francisque. In
other cases, relatives never come to reclaim children who have been
treated.
"They love their children, hut they have no job. They can’t afford
to feed the baby. They are desperate." said Franctsque. "They think
someone else can give better care to their children."
The baby hoy was rushed upstairs to a room full of sic k i hildren
lying side-hv-side in cots and cribs Four nurses began lifesaving
efforts. The baby's prognosis, a hospital administrator said, was very
poor
He was suffering from severe malnutrition, so weak he could bare
ly move his oversized head
When the nurses jablied a needle into the loose skin of his stic k
like arm to start intravenous feeding, he could only make a pathetic
little bleat.
Olivia Wilda, -15. who carried him to the hospital with a small
plastic bag of baby ’s clothing, said it was the second time she found
a baby abandoned bv its mother in the slum where she lives
Grace Children's Hospital, the only hospital in Haiti for children
with tuberculosis, treated 1.053 children for TB in 1003, up from H51
in 1992, and the* numbers are rising, Franc isque said.
At the same time, its number of beds has fallen to 72 from 200 in
1975 in the fane of politic al and economic turmoil.
Haitian families and neighbors traditionally take c am of one anoth
er's young, so the trend toward abandonment reflects an unprece
dented desperation, said Francisquc
In a corner, two little girls lav on cots, c rying They had been dis
charged, but no family members had retrieved them
“My aunt hasn't come to pic k me up." sobbed Mic.hou Alexis, in.
wiping her tears with her shirt sleeve
The hospital looks for orphanages to take the abandoned c hildren.
but that's becoming harder because then re all full, said Francisque
"The abandoned children, they're all called Innot ent." a nurse
said solemnly. "Bei ause they are innocent vie Ulus."
r
French officials accused of
distributing tainted blood
PARIS (AP) — A French
prosecutor opened an inquiry
Monday into allegations a for
mer prime minister and two
other top officials were to
blame for the distribution of
AIDS-tainted blood through a
national blood bank.
Monday's development
was the biggest gain yet in
the campaign by infected
transfusion patients and their
families to hold top gov
ernment officials accountable
for a scandal that has only
been blamed on doctors.
Officials had ruled the
statute of limitations pre
vented charging the former
ministers with negligence for
the 1985 infection of 1.200
hemophiliacs with the virus
that causes AIDS. More than
300 have died.
But Prosecutor General
Pierre Truche said he opened
a judicial investigation into
"the administration of sub
stances harmful to health," a
charge that could bring a 10
year prison sentence.
Those named in the probe
were Socialist former Prime
Minister Laurent Fabius, for
mer Social Affairs Minister
Georgina Dufoix, and
Edmond Herve, the former
deputy health minister.
Fabiua. now n member of
Parliament, noted that he had
"Hsked for such an in
vestigation for a long time."
In a statement, he said he
expected the investigation
would "contribute to estab
lishing the truth clearly,
rapidly and completely.”
Families of the victims,
many of them children, have
pressed prosecutors to con
tinue pursuing officials
linked to France's worst
health scandal
The expected inquiry is the
result of constitutional
reform approved last July
that allows citizens with a
grievance against the govern
ment to petition a judicial
panel for an investigation.
Prosecutors have said the
government could have used
available techniques to de
contaminate HIV-tainted
blood or replace it with
untainted stocks.
Instead the government
chose not to purchase U.S.
d eve loped technology that
could have neutralized the
HIV virus by heating the
blood. It also spumed a U.S.
AIDS-testing technique, wait
ing instead for France's Pas
teur Institute to develop its
own.
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