This morning I was doing a bible study and washing my laundry when Fany came to tell me there was an explosion in the market by the stadium. It is the biggest market in the capital city, where everyone buys their groceries for the week. My first thought was that it was purposeful, but she explained that a chimbol of gas exploded and caused a fire which made other chimbols explode.
The ladies who sell cooked food were most affected. The market is only open Fridays and Saturday mornings. The explosion happened at of the busiest times of all, during lunch hour on Friday.
So far they are reporting that 40 people were severely burned and 6 are children.
I am giving thanks for the Red Cross again, as I see them loading people into ambulances with their clothes burned off and pieces of shrapnel in their bodies. The people were taken to Hospital Escuela for the first 45 minutes until it reached capacity. Now they are being sent to San Felipe where I visited the maternity ward when I first came to Honduras on a team from K2 in 2008. Some are going to Seguro Social where Clara is too.
Fany is trying to get in touch with people she knows who work selling food there. Her sister-in-law is one. So far she cannot contact them. But the news is not reporting any deaths.
The news crews are making things more nuts. They get in the way as the ambulances are unloading patients at the hospital. Then the news reporters yell at the medical people that they are doing their job and need access to the patients. This would not happen in the US. The ambulance staff cannot even unload the patients from the ambulances and everyone is arguing over whose job is more important - the new reporters or the medical staff.
It is crazy what they show on the news here. Personally, I don't need to see it all. But maybe that is because I did not grow up here. I am not accustomed to seeing the carnage, the way people might be here.
Now the news of the explosion is being interrupted to show two bodies dead in a pool of blood inside of a wooden canoe, one dead in the back of a pickup truck. People are just standing around the scene, looking at the cameras as if this is a good chance to get on tv. Nobody seems upset that there are 2 dead people submerged in blood inside of a canoe a few feet away. There are two more bodies that they aren't showing. All of them are related and were killed, but they are not sure why yet.
Now back to the explosion. They are saying now that people are at risk of death. And they are asking for blood urgently. Gosh. It has been hard enough for us to find blood for Clara. Now it will be more difficult. They are even asking for anesthesia, oxygen tanks, antiseptic solution, antibiotic ointment and sterile pads. The biggest hosptial in the capital of Honduras does not have the most basic things it needs to treat these burn victims.
Although I can't do much personally, I am making a vow that I will do all I can to raise my levels of Hemoglobin so I can give blood in the future. It seems that many people (in every country, I think) don't understand the importance of giving blood.
PS:
Fany and I were just talking about the idea that maybe they will have enough extra blood from donors for the explosion, that they could use some of the overage for Clara. Fany told me that Hospital Escuela is asking for such basic things like anesthesia. I said I heard that too. What a shame. She said yes, just yesterday they discovered a huge storage unit full of medical supplies from Hospital Escuela. Someone was stealing them. So much corruption in a land with so much need.
