According to the New York Times, the White House has just announced that the U.S. military will resume the airlift of seriously injured Haitians to American hospitals. “The humanitarian effort was suspended five days ago following complaints from the state of Florida that its hospitals were overwhelmed.”
The flights, which have transported hundreds of gravely injured patients, all but a handful to Florida, were suspended Wednesday after Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida wrote a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, warning that “Florida’s health care system is quickly reaching saturation, especially in the area of high-level trauma care.” He asked the federal government to absorb some of the expenses by activating the National Disaster Medical System, which reimburses states for hospital treatment after catastrophes.
The Times article also discusses the ongoing incident involving members of a Baptist church in Idaho, who were among 10 people detained for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti into the Dominican Republic:
Haitian officials detained the church members as their bus traveled toward the Dominican Republic and charged the adults with lacking proper documents for the children, who range in age from 2 months to 12 years old. Haitian officials have said they are concerned that children who lost their parents in the quake might be susceptible to child trafficking for purposes of adoption.
Read more about both developments here.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.