美国国家公共电台 NPR 112 Degrees With No Water: Puerto Rican Hospitals Battle Life And Death Daily

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And let's turn now to Puerto Rico, where three-quarters of hospitals are still operating on limited emergency power. This creates dangerous conditions for critically ill patients. NPR's John Burnett spent a day with a federal disaster medical team.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE¹: Every day across this Caribbean island with its shattered power grid², hospitals wage a life-and-death battle to keep their patients from getting sicker in the tropical heat. At the Pavia Arecibo Hospital, about an hour west of San Juan, administrator³ Jose Luis Rodriguez wipes sweat from his worried brow.

JOSE LUIS RODRIGUEZ: We don't have air conditioning. We can handle maybe a week, but this is already two weeks almost.

BURNETT: The government calls them indirect deaths, those who died after the violent storm - heart attack victims, people on kidney dialysis machines that failed, people who fell off damaged roofs and people killed in auto⁴ accidents on highways made more treacherous⁵ from Maria's destruction. The official death toll⁶ is 34, but because of reports like this from local hospital officials, the number is expected to rise.

RODRIGUEZ: So far, after the storm, we have had 49 dead bodies.

BURNETT: The fourth floor of the hospital has been taken over by stocky Midwesterners in khaki pants, black boots and T-shirts that say DMAT for Disaster Medical Assistance Team. It's a sort of National Guard for medical people that falls under the Department of Health and Human Services. Chief medical officer of this DMAT is Dr. Melissa Stein. She's normally an urgent care physician at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, currently deployed⁷ to Arecibo.

MELISSA STEIN: And so in telling team members coming here, we tell them it's going to be an extremely austere⁸ environment.

BURNETT: There is no power, no air conditioning, no local water, no local food, no Internet and very limited communication. Each deployment⁹ has its challenges. Here in Arecibo, it was the sweltering sixth-floor cardiac unit.

JIM FEHR: The temperatures up there were as high as 108 degrees, even higher. This was a huge stress on the patients who were quite sick. So we have ended up moving them here to these tents where the hospital staff is caring for them.

BURNETT: That's Jim Fehr, one of the DMAT docs. Lying in the cooling tent is a 77-year-old retired¹⁰ factory worker named Georgina Gonzales. She may have ended up as an indirect victim of the storm had she not been brought here.

GEORGINA GONZALES: (Through interpreter) It was hot, very hot. I was suffocating¹¹. When they transferred me here on Sunday, they rescued me from the dragon's mouth.

BURNETT: Back on the fourth floor, a distraught woman appears with a shocking story. The hospital an hour away in the city of Aguadilla, she says, has shut down, kicked out its patients and it smells like decomposing¹² bodies. Team commander George Thorp springs into action.

GEORGE THORP: We'll get a strike team out there right away.

BURNETT: Within an hour, the strike team is racing¹³ down the highway past utility poles snapped like pencils and the fallen arches of a McDonald's. The team roars up to the Good Samaritan Hospital of Aguadilla. Two heavily armed federal agents enter first. Then comes the DMAT, expecting the worst. They walk down a corridor past bewildered nurses and are ushered¹⁴ into a quiet, orderly office. Nervous laughter all around. Dr. Melissa Stein speaks first.

STEIN: I am the chief medical officer for a national disaster medical assistance team, and we had been told that you needed significant help. I can tell by pulling up, at least the story we were given was somewhat exaggerated.

BURNETT: The hospital administrator, Marilyn Morales, listens politely and responds.

MARILYN MORALES: Our ER department, you know, is in bad condition in terms of the temperature.

STEIN: Got it.

MORALES: If you can install something next to the ER, that would excellent with...

BURNETT: As it turns out, both hospitals are in the same boat. There's no air conditioning. The emergency generators¹⁵ need maintenance, and the patients and staff are hot. After a tour, Stein promises to request some federal help, and the team files back out onto the sidewalk.

STEIN: All right. Saddle back up. Get your packs.

BURNETT: With a big smile, she adds...

STEIN: This is not the hospital of "The Walking Dead," which is what had been described to us.

BURNETT: And that is a good example of what happens after a traumatic weather event when there is no communication, rumors¹⁶ fly and people worry about their hospitals. John Burnett, NPR News, Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOMAS GUBBINS' "REFUGIO")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

3 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

4 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

5 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

6 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

7 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

8 austere   

adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的

参考例句：

• His way of life is rather austere.他的生活方式相当简朴。
• The room was furnished in austere style.这间屋子的陈设都很简单朴素。

9 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

10 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

11 suffocating   

a.使人窒息的

参考例句：

• After a few weeks with her parents, she felt she was suffocating.和父母呆了几个星期后，她感到自己毫无自由。
• That's better. I was suffocating in that cell of a room.这样好些了，我刚才在那个小房间里快闷死了。

12 decomposing   

腐烂( decompose的现在分词 )； （使）分解； 分解（某物质、光线等）

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the overpowering stench of decomposing vegetation. 空气中充满了令人难以忍受的腐烂植物的恶臭。
• Heat was obtained from decomposing manures and hot air flues. 靠肥料分解和烟道为植物提供热量。

13 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

14 ushered   

v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The secretary ushered me into his office. 秘书把我领进他的办公室。
• A round of parties ushered in the New Year. 一系列的晚会迎来了新年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》