Hospital officials across Puerto Rico expect the situation to worsen significantly before it improves after Hurricane Maria damaged much of the island's infrastructure and left scores of residents depending on radio as their primary source of information, Reuters reports.
A cardiovascular surgeon at San Juan-based Centro Cardiovascular de Puerto Rico y del Caribe told Reuters in addition to backup generators beginning to fail, the lack of diesel and fuel has become an immediate concern for medical personnel at hospitals across the island. Medical staff must either wait in seven-hour long lines on the island's few functioning gas stations or forgo coming to work, the report states.
To aid in reconstruction efforts, HHS' disaster medical assistance team set up makeshift hospital units at Centro Medico de Puerto Rico in San Juan to assist the medical staff in caring for the few patients remaining at the facility, Reuters reports.
Patients from hospitals across the island are being transported to various South Carolina and Louisiana hospitals for care.
"Yesterday we got reports that it could be upwards of 300 patients that have to be moved," Jeff Straub, corporate emergency manager and safety officer at Spartanburg (S.C) Regional Healthcare System, told WISTV-10 News. "We know that they are out of power and they are out of water and it's a very humbling experience for everybody involved."
Some Puerto Rican patients were also transported to the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, La., Sunday evening, according to KSLA-12 News.
Puerto Rican officials estimate at least 10 people have died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, according to Reuters.