In Venezuela, a heartbreaking photo featuring newborn babies in cardboard boxes are going viral for all the right reasons.
It highlights the important fact that for some parts in the world, they do not have enough resources to properly take care of their newborns, particularly premature babies that need proper equipment.
According to a report by the Mirror, an opposition party in Venezuela is claiming that they are currently experiencing a “hospital crisis” in their country, thus having less than ideal conditions in which they care for the babies.
The photo was first uploaded online by Mesa de la Unidad Democratica, and it shows a row of carboard boxes inside which are babies wrapped in blankets. The medical notes were medical notes are printed on a piece of paper and taped on each of the boxes.
The photo’s caption says: “So the world knows: In our neonatal units at the Dr Domingo Guzman Lander hospital they are being kept in cardboard boxes due to a lack of incubators. 20 Sept.”
Meanwhile, Congressman Manuel Ferreira told Fox News Latino: “The babies spent all night in the cardboard boxes until the pictures were made public. After that they discharged the babies to avoid further exposure.”
However, not everyone in Venezuela is convinced of the photo’s legitimacy; it is yet to be verified.
Says Venezuelan Social Security Institute President Carlos Rotondaro said on Twitter: “We in no way justify the actions taken.”
He also went on record justifying his country’s healthcare system.
“Our hospitals take care of hundreds of patients, despite what some media are hiding,” he also wrote. “We recognize the failures and continue.”
In response to the viral photo, one government hospital system took to the internet to share a different picture.
It shows a hospital that uses plastic hospital incubators in the nursery, proving that they do have necessary facilities and equipment to accommodate newborns.
Since January, the hospital says that they have delivered a total of 4000 babies.
The photo may or may not legitimate, but there is no questioning the fact that such matters need to be addressed—particularly in Venezuela where the recession is terribly affecting the whole nation, and whose citizens is struggling to have access to basic goods and medical supplies in the mids of economic turmoil.
Republished with permission from: theAsianparent Philippines