SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The death toll of the earthquakes in Venezuela has reached more than 3,500, and with tens of thousands of people still missing, officials expect that number to rise. Many survivors are staying in shelters or outdoor tents. As NPR's Durrie Bouscaren reports, the disaster's aftermath is straining a healthcare system already stretched to the brink.
DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: When the earthquake hit, Luz Noguero was in the shower.
LUZ NOGUERO: (Speaking Spanish).
BOUSCAREN: She grabbed her clothes, couldn't find her keys, found her keys, ran out the door into the street.
NOGUERO: (Speaking Spanish).
BOUSCAREN: Then there was another aftershock, she said. "We ran into the street - the main street - and it began to rain. We lost electricity, and there's no phone signal to call my family." Noguero left her asthma medication on the nightstand. She did not realize how hard it would be to replace it.
When twin earthquakes hit north central Venezuela on June 24, thousands of people were killed. The death toll includes medical staff, says Ian Clarke (ph) of the World Health Organization. For example, a woman who ran a maternal health initiative.
IAN CLARKE: One example in La Guaira, the lady who was running the entire maternal pathways is missing and, of course, is presumed to have perished in the earthquake. So that is having a direct impact in terms of the response.
BOUSCAREN: In addition, three hospitals in the disaster zone were critically damaged. Six more are only partially functional, the WHO said.
CLARKE: In terms of medical supplies, even prior to the earthquake, there was massive shortages - up to 37% - of essential medicines in many of the hospitals.
BOUSCAREN: Under ousted president, Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's economy collapsed, medical supplies grew scarce, vaccination rates dropped and cases of measles, diphtheria and malaria surged. Almost a third of the nation's doctors left the country, according to the Venezuelan Medical Federation.
ALEJANDRO ARRIETA: So that's kind of the normal situation in crisis, right?
BOUSCAREN: Alejandro Arrieta is a health economist at Florida International University. He says patients at public hospitals often have to buy their own medical supplies.
ARRIETA: So you go to the doctor, and the doctor tells you, OK, if you need a surgery, this is a list.
BOUSCAREN: Now, aid groups have come in and put up field hospitals. In addition to quake injuries, doctors are responding to a new wave of health issues - the kind that happen when thousands of people are suddenly displaced in the heat and the rain and the dust. This is Dr. Eduardo Celades, a senior health advisor for UNICEF.
EDUARDO CELADES: And now they are seeing it's more diarrhea, respiratory infections, as well as skin diseases because they are exposed to the sun, for example, for many hours.
BOUSCAREN: Dehydration, asthma attacks, high blood pressure, the normal health problems of normally healthy people who no longer have easy access to their medications, regular meals or running water - People like Luz Noguero, who left her asthma medication behind. Her nephew in another state got in touch with Nicolle Giraud who runs an education nonprofit called the E-VEN Project.
NICOLLE GIRAUD: It was a race against the clock to find all of the medicine she needed, the right equipment.
BOUSCAREN: Giraud reached out to WhatsApp groups.
GIRAUD: Checking in the obvious places of pharmacies and then having to ask around in groups because they were either sold out or very expensive or not the kind that they were looking for.
BOUSCAREN: A volunteer for the project ended up driving the supplies to Noguero's family. And this, Giraud says, is the reality on the ground.
GIRAUD: There's a saying here of (speaking Spanish). You know, the good people - we're the majority.
BOUSCAREN: While medical workers do the best they can with the resources they have, she says, it's everyday people who have stepped up to fill the gaps. Meanwhile, Luz Noguero and her family are staying in tents near their home.
NOGUERO: (Speaking Spanish).
BOUSCAREN: "But I'm alive, thank God," she says. "God gave us another chance at life."
Durrie Bouscaren, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALVEDON'S "RETIRE (FINALE)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.