Chapecoense Plane Crash Survivors to Be Discharged in Weeks, Says Hospital Administrator

12/06/2016 - 16h24

Ferney Rodríguez, the administrator of the San Vicente hospital in Rionegro, in Colombia (45 km from Medellín) where the Brazilian survivors of the Chapecoense plane crash are being treated, gave an interview to Folha saying that the patients may be discharged in a matter of weeks, not days.

Rodríguez is a general practitioner and he presides over 297 doctors. On a daily basis at least 10 doctors treat Brazilian patients Alan Ruschel, (the 27-year-old Chapecoense full back), Helio Neto (defender, 31), Jackson Follman (goalkeeper, 24) and Rafael Henzel (journalist, 43).

All patients are in the ICU. Helio Neto's condition is the most critical of the three. He is still sedated and on a ventilator (he can't breathe on his own), and he has a lung infection that isn't responding to treatment, all while being in an induced coma.

Folha - Have you ever treated this many patients in critical condition?

Ferney Rordríguez - No, not on this scale. I believe the magnitude of this accident - where 71 people were killed and 4 survivors are in critical condition - is something few medical institutions have dealt with. We've dealt with patients in very critical condition, but not under these circumstances.

What's the closest you've gotten to this sort of situation? Perhaps something related to the wave of violence that Colombia recently went through?

Yes. We have a helipad so we admit a lot of people injured by landmines [according to the UN, Colombia is ranked second in landmines, only behind Afghanistan; it is estimated that landmines are spread across more than 60% of Colombia's lands] and car accidents since we are right by the Medellín-Bogotá highway.

From a professional point of view, how would you define this experience? And personally?

It is both a professional and a personal challenge for every single one of us here at this institution. Professionally it is a challenge because the patients present polytraumas, traumas that are very significant.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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