Jamaica’s Black River Hospital in ruins, but every patient saved

Doctors and nurses at the Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth are recounting scenes of chaos and courage as Hurricane Melissa tore through the southern Jamaican parish earlier last week, leaving the medical facility in ruins.

Emergency Medicine Resident Dr Robert Powell told Barbados TODAY that despite severe flooding and structural collapse, all 71 patients admitted before the hurricane survived.

“Our team of doctors were able, even during the hurricane, to keep all 71 patients alive,” he said. “After the hurricane, the rest of the team and the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force) were able to do emergency evacuations, airlifting critical patients and those remaining. So all 71 who were here made it out alive.”

Black River Hospital

Dr Powell described the evacuation as a multi-agency effort involving the Ministry of Health, the JDF, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA).

He said the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department was the only section still partially functional.

“We’re now isolating the A&E building, that’s the only one left standing, and not even fully, just the first floor,” he shared. “We’ve cleared out the water and mud so we can function. What we need urgently now is electricity, potable water, and internet. A lot of people don’t realise hospitals need internet and communications to operate.”

Powell appealed for donations of generators, food, water, and hygiene supplies, noting that many residents have been left without the basics.

“If you have anything to donate, pack it on a truck, put it in a container, send it, nothing is too small,” he urged. “We have babies who’ll need formula and diapers, mothers whose milk supplies are drying up from stress, and patients coming in with diarrhoea and vomiting from contaminated water.”

Outside the shattered facility, Carol Vassell sat quietly on a low wall, her eyes filled with exhaustion. Her husband, who suffered multiple fractures, was among those airlifted out.

“When the roof flew off they had to bring them back down and water was almost to the height of the bed,” she recalled. “He said he was terrified and thought he was going to die.”

Vassell said it took her two days to find him at Mandeville Hospital.

“It was so stressful. I walked along the seacoast, climbed rocks, almost fell and when I came here, he was gone,” she said, noting that she eventually made her way to the hospital where her husband was relocated to.

Much of the facility lies in ruins.

The patient’s account of what happened that terrible day was corroborated by Barbados TODAY’s team, whose visit revealed disorganised hospital beds, soaked and torn medical files, and equipment laid scattered in debris, stark reminders of the storm’s power.

The story was also confirmed by nurse Alexia Grant, who fought back tears as she described the ordeal.

“I was here from Monday night and about 9 am [Tuesday morning] the rain started wetting the patients through the window,” she recalled.

“I’m traumatised…we even had a dead body there with us for the whole time [as] we couldn’t get to transport the body so a lot of the nurses are traumatised right now. There’s no words to tell you how hard the nurses worked that night. We are just traumatised. We cried, we prayed, patients prayed with us, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Nurse Alexia Grant

Like the rest of the parish and other neighbouring towns, the Black River Hospital stands as a grim reminder of the fury of a category 5 storm, relying heavily on any assistance that comes its way. (SM)