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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Disasters & Emergencies

They felt fear, got frustrated, cried: doctors who, with the earthquakes, understood they also need to be accompanied

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Outcome reported
  • Doctors in Venezuela experienced fear and vulnerability during a recent earthquake, realizing their own need for support.
  • The earthquake shifted their roles from caregivers to survivors, highlighting the limits of medical expertise in natural disasters.
  • Medical professionals faced new challenges treating patients amidst destroyed infrastructure and widespread displacement, emphasizing the need for psychological support.

When the earth began to shake on June 24, Rafael Cortés, José Rolando Ayala, and Dayinnigh Ortiz momentarily ceased to be doctors. Years of experience, accumulated shifts, and countless patients treated became secondary as they, like thousands of Venezuelans, focused on survival, finding safety, and checking on loved ones.

The earthquake thrust them into the role of victims, experiencing the emergency firsthand rather than managing it. It was only after the tremors subsided and the scale of the tragedy became apparent that they returned to their professional duties. However, their practice shifted from clinics and operating rooms to destroyed buildings, displaced families, and communities grappling with uncertainty.

I hugged them all, to protect them. I knew that only God had a different mandate for us at that moment, but the instinct was to preserve ourselves.

— Rafael Cortés CharriDescribing his immediate reaction to protect his family during the earthquake.

Rafael Cortés Charri, a professor at the University Hospital of Caracas, was with his family when his apartment building began to sway. Despite years of handling obstetric emergencies and making critical decisions under pressure, the immediate threat was personal. His instinct was to protect his mother, partner, and her daughter, embracing them as the walls moved and objects fell.

For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of imminent death.

— José Rolando AyalaExpressing his personal experience of fear during the earthquake.

Meanwhile, internal medicine specialist José Rolando Ayala experienced a profound sense of vulnerability he had never felt as a physician. Watching his fish tank spill and his apartment structure seem to destabilize, he confessed, "For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of imminent death." He realized that no medical knowledge could truly prepare him for such a primal fear, especially while trying to shield his children.

The earthquake underscored a critical need: even medical professionals require support. Their experience highlighted that in the face of overwhelming natural disasters, the human need for safety and accompaniment transcends professional roles, demanding a holistic approach to care that addresses both physical and psychological well-being.

No medical knowledge could prepare him for that sensation.

— José Rolando AyalaReflecting on the limits of his professional training in a personal crisis.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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