PAGE 10 � S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S �
COPE, FROM PAGE 1
Hugo Emmanuel is one of the
untold thousands who doctors say
have lost the ability to cope.
"Stay away! I don't want you to
touch me," he barks at an Ameri-
can nurse who wants to wash his
shattered lower leg.
Emmanuel, 49, is an educated
man of spindly limbs but voluble
spirit who rests on a mattress on
the floor of the kitchenette in the
Espoir Hospital
in the capital's
eastern hills.
He tore the
cast off his leg
last week.
For days
after he arrived
two weeks ago,
he only let the
hospital direc-
tor feed him; he
claimed everyone else was trying
to poison him.
Emmanuel, who lies in his un-
derwear beneath a white sheet
and towel, is at least getting per-
sonal attention.
Most of those diagnosed with
severe trauma are treated as out-
patients because there is no room
for them in the country's 91 func-
tioning hospitals.
"The doctors in such situations
tend only to hand out tranquiliz-
ers," Jones said. "We don't want
them to do that."
Tranquilizers are hardly suffi-
cient for earthquake victims like
Emmanuel, who lost his house,
both of his parents and his job.
"I was in a coma-type situa-
tion," Emmanuel says in graceful
French that reflects his experi-
ence as a Quisqueya University
researcher.
"Every time I think about los-
ing my family, I lose my mind."
He quickly corrects himself.
"I'm not crazy. I just think I'm
suffering from psychological
shock."
The hospital's director, Dr.
Gusse Darline, said Emmanuel is
sporadically amnesiac.
But that's only part of his
problem.
"He didn't want to come into
the hospital for treatment. We
had to drag him in," she said.
Darline says she doesn't know
what to do with Emmanuel once
his leg heals.
Port-au-Prince's only psychiat-
ric hospital is barely functioning.
All but 11 of its more than 100
pre-quake patients were removed
by relatives who feared the build-
ing would collapse in another
quake, said Dr. Peter Hughes,
an Irish psychiatrist who arrived
late last week and is studying
what to do.
Hospital nurses have refused to
accompanyHughesintothebuild-
ing -- though it
appears struc-
turally sound
to him -- be-
cause "they
are absolutely
petrified" of
another quake,
he said.
"There's no
electricity and
no running water. Some patients
are in a barred room. There is a
need for mattresses and working
toilets."
It is not known how many men-
tal health workers are available
to help in Haiti.
Pan American Health Organi-
zation officials who are coordi-
nating medical care among more
than 200 aid groups have only
just begun to create a database
of hospitals, patients, doctors and
medical resources.
But it seems clear that Haiti
will have to train more of its own
personnel to work on the front
lines with people suffering from
psychological trauma.
"The most urgent need ... is
not food and water which is tem-
porary," said Pierre Brunache
Jr., an official with the Citizens
Network for Foreign Affairs who
led a survey of relief workers and
victims.
"The most urgent need is for
psychiatrists."
PAHO Dr. Jorge Castilla, lead
coordinator of the aid groups
in Haiti, put out an urgent re-
quest Sunday for mental health
professionals.
"But this is not easy because
they have to be able to adapt to
the culture and the language," he
said.
"I can't have hundreds of vol-
unteers coming here who don't
speak the languages."
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
IN THE WORLD
BY HENRI E. CAUVIN
The Washington Post
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
-- Haiti's criminal justice system
was brought to a standstill by last
month's earthquake, which lev-
eled the capital city's courthouse.
But crime did not stop, and that
has left police commanders with
jail cells full of frustrated inmates
who have not been given a chance
to go before a judge.
At the main police station,
which was damaged by the quake,
more than half of the 81 prisoners
are being housed in a makeshift
cell set up in a small courtyard. It
is a pit of anger and squalor.
With 46 people crowded inside,
there is no room to lie down and
no reason to think that would be
safe.
"It's hell. H-E-L-L," Bouzy
Archange Jr. said from behind
bars. "I'm in hell."
Like many in the cell, Arch-
ange had been there longer than
the 48 hours allowed under Hai-
tian law. In his case, it had been
three days since he was arrested,
accused of stealing a police offi-
cer's uniform.
But since the earthquake crip-
pled the government, the rules
don't exactly apply.
"You have to understand it's
a crisis," the station's commis-
sioner, Michel Ange Gedeon, said
as he sat in a police vehicle a few
steps from the outdoor cell. "We
can't do anything."
Administering justice is one of
countless government functions
that have been upended by the
quake, which killed more than
150,000 and laid ruin to much of
downtown Port-au-Prince.
In addition to the courthouse,
which was known as the Palace
of Justice, the headquarters of
the Ministry of Justice was also
destroyed. More than a dozen
employees perished.
Buried in the rubble with them
were troves of vital documents
that officials are trying to recover
or re-create.
In a country that has struggled
to control crime, the need for a
functioning criminal justice sys-
tem is not lost on officials.
They have been looking at sites
that could temporarily house
court hearings, and they are
scheduled to meet with judges
this week to map out a plan for
resuming some basic judicial
functions.
"We're doing the best we can,"
said Antoine Andri, the Justice
Ministry's director general, who
was named to his post hours be-
fore the earthquake struck.
For the latest news about the Haiti
disaster, including Stars and Stripes'
Twitter feed, photos, maps, unit
deployments and more, go to
stripes.com/go/haiti
Quake cripples Haiti's criminal justice system
Cope: Port-au-Prince's only psychiatric hospital has no utilities
"I'm not crazy. I just
think I'm suffering
from psychological
shock."
Hugo Emmanuel
PHOTOS BY RODRIGO ABD/AP
Above: Hugo Em-
manuel, 49, rests
on a mattress in the
Espoir Hospital in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
One in five of Haiti's
earthquake survi-
vors have suffered
trauma so great that
they won't be able to
cope without
professional help,
doctors say.
Left: A woman walks
past a man painted
in white in downtown
Port-au-Prince.

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