Trump’s ban stalls lifesaving treatment for Haitian children who need to travel for surgery

The relief organization leaders who sent more than 100 Haiti children suffering from serious heart conditions to the United States to cardiac surgery said President Donald Trump has banned travelers from 19 countries It will stop or cancel the procedures for saving life for at least dozens of children or young people.

The embargo, which enters into force on Monday, led to the large -scale certainty of many and the condemnation of international leaders. The announcement issued on Tuesday’s exhibitions of exceptions to those who are the permanently American population and who travel to the United States for the World Cup and the Olympics, among other examples. It was not mentioned like medical necessities, such as those looking for treatment in the United States through the CPR.

the International Heart AllianceCEO Owen Robinson said that the total waiting list for Hyetine, from children to young people, has a total of 316 people at least need heart surgery. Some of them are placed in hospitals in the Dominican Republic and sometimes the Cayman Islands. But there are currently five open operations in the United States

“Some of them may be able to wait a few months, others, if they don’t go now, they will go away very quickly,” said Robinson.

the The CEO adds that The Foreign Minister can issue exemptions for visas in cases that “serve the national interest of the United States”. It is not clear whether international CPR clients with medical needs will fit this prescription. The White House or the Foreign Ministry did not respond to the request to comment on the matter.

“We have children who die every week waiting because there are not many international openings for these children,” Robinson said.

Some children travel in the program directly from their homeland to the United States, undergo surgery, then return to Haiti. But for many hateine, international travel requires multiple levels of logistical quarrels. Some patients and their parents who can secure surgeries in other countries must apply for a visa to the United States, travel here, then go to their final destination. A travel ban in the United States is now making a key in that process.

Fabian Rene, 16, was diagnosed with rheumatism in February. Her father said, because of her condition, Fabian, who lives in Port or Prince, could not even attend the school because she suffers from breathing insufficiency. He said that “the bad news” he received about the travel ban that caused the postponement or cancellation of his daughter through the United States to the Dominican Republic is “really annoying and breaking my heart.”

“I was not waiting for something like that,” said Rene, 53, in Creul through a translator. “We know with certainty that there is no place in Haiti, we can have this possibility.

He also said that the news will be worried about his family to hear it and that they do not know “as they will find another open door that can give it a chance.”

Robinson said that the American embassy in Haiti recently informed him that he could not be able to issue any visas due to a travel ban. In the past, the embassy issued frequent visas for the Haiti for travel to the United States for care. He added that the office of MP Becca Pallite, D-VT. Show communication with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to see if children can get exceptions.

Many children in poor countries such as Haiti are suffering from Fabian’s condition because they did not see the doctor and treat for common common disease, said Dr. John Clark, a pediatric cardiologist at the Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio who worked with ICA. Infections of infections that are not processed and repeated can lead to rheumatic heart disease.

Robinson said that St. Damian Children’s Hospital in Port or Prince has received pediatrics from 2015 to 2019. Now, the dangerous conditions in Haiti doctors from other countries are prevented from entering or providing care. Clark said Haiti does not have enough doctors who practice there, and the loss of opportunities for medical education in Haiti only perpetuates the problem.

He said that Clark participated in a surgical mission there in 2019, when the visit of American doctors was performing two heart surgery daily. It ended a radical rise in gang violence – including an attack on a hospital ambulance and a stoning worker to death – most of the medical tasks to Haiti.

Gang I have only escalated since then, United Nations numbers appearEspecially Assassination Haiti President Jovnil Moise in 2021. Haiti is one of The poorest countries in the worldAnd more than half of the haitists live below the poverty line. The country also suffers from Government corruption, gang violence and food insecurityIn addition to weak natural disasters, including the destroyed 2010 earthquake that killed at least 220,000 people. Lack of adequate health care as well Divide distributions Like cholera, according to the Council of Foreign Relations.

“I hope that things can one day be able to calm enough so that we can return there [to Haiti]Clark said: “But now, there is no way for us to return down.”

Andrece Boncoeur from Port-UU-PRINCE has received an open free surgery at the CEDIMAT Center for Vascular in the Dominican Republic To fix a valve when he was 9 years old. This procedure, however, was supposed to be only a temporary solution. Now, Andres, 16, to travel across the United States to perform more permanent surgery.

On Thursday, Andres Boncourt’s father, Andrei Bonkour, said that he had not yet told his son about the travel ban that prevents him from passing through Bonnkour, the American that he knows “something can change at any time.”

However, children like Andric do not have much time to wait. In April, Andrice was transferred to the hospital for three days at Eben-EZER Hospital at the Haiti Center for Heart Failure. Bonkour said that his family has spent “everything we have” and that their money was “almost”. He said that he hoped that the situation will change so that his son, who aspires to become a sponsor, “can have an opportunity to live in his life as an ordinary child.”

Clark, Robinson and all the patient’s parents agree that the Trump administration is ready to accommodate sick children.

Clark said: “These children are a person’s child and the grandson of someone and they have no access to life rescue.” “Is there any room for sympathy?”