Dr. Maxo Luma: "It Is a Very Strong Nation"
Many Haitians returned to their home country to help respond to the devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010. Maxo was among them, and stayed for eight months working in camps for the displaced. He shares his perspective on why the earthquake was so destructive, and how it has affected him personally. Transcript Host, Leslie Friday: Byenvini or welcome. I’m your host, Leslie Friday. Thank you for listening to Voices of Haiti, a Partners In Health podcast that shares the stories of our Haitian colleagues as they reflect on the January 12th 2010 earthquake. Today, we hear from an infectious disease doctor who began working with Zanmi Lasante, as PIH is known in Haiti, in 2005. He has helped patients battle deadly diseases like tuberculosis and HIV and seen them recover—against all odds. Some odds, though, are hard to predict. Like when a massive earthquake will bring a nation to its knees. Maxo Luma: It’s not magic. You cannot stop a natural disaster. It's very unpredictable, right? But what we can do, we can minimize, we can reduce the magnitude of every single natural disaster, if you have a strong healthcare system ... Host, Leslie Friday: That’s Dr. Maxo Luma, who’s currently the executive director of Partners In Health in Liberia. But at the time of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, he was teaching courses within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. You might think Maxo’s perspective on the earthquake is unique, or possibly even wrong. But stick with what he has to say. Maxo Luma: The earthquake did not kill people. What I'm trying to say is that all those people who died, it's like a quarter of a million people who died, more than another quarter of million you know, are left injured, you know handicapped after the earthquake, we cannot attribute all this to the earthquake. It was the system, the weakness of the system you know, that kill those people. Host, Leslie Friday: As a direct result of the earthquake, more than 50 hospitals and health centers collapsed. Dozens of nurses and doctors died. This occurred within a public health system that was already struggling. So…who cares for the gravely injured when there are no first responders? How do you transport victims, when there are few ambulances? Where do you take patients when the nearest hospitals stand in ruins? As Maxo says, a weak health system AND overall infrastructural systems were the causes of death for thousands of Haitians. That point became clearer—just one month later--when a larger, 8.8 earthquake struck Chile, spurring a devastating tsunami. All told, 500 people lost their lives. This comparison is not meant to belittle what happened in Chile--all loss of life is tragic. But it is necessary when asking the question: why were there such different outcomes between the earthquake in Haiti, and the dual natural disasters in Chile? As Maxo says, the answer to this question doesn’t require magical knowledge. The answer…is that Chile, among other advantages, had a stronger PUBLIC health system compared to Haiti. Maxo Luma: After the earthquake, Haiti attracted a lot of attention from the international community, where they made a lot of promises, most of them were not kept, right? And for those who managed to commit or keep their promises, they did it the wrong way. Because whether or not we believe it, it is of the responsibility of the government of the country to ensure safety of citizens, to ensure basic human rights, education, water, sanitation, healthcare. This is the responsibility of the government of the country. Host, Leslie Friday: But here’s the catch: the Haitian government received less than 1% of...
