Trump’s travel ban could impact international medical patients
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Trump’s travel ban could impact international medical patients
The order bans 12 countries, mostly in the Middle East and Africa. The order also partially restricts entry into the United States from seven countries. The International Cardiac Alliance partners with hospitals across the world to get Haitian children and young adults surgery. Most flights have connections in the U.S. from Haiti, where a visa is required for layovers. The alliance said they have more than 300 children on their waitlist. They said they help roughly 50 patients a year.“It’s not just the physicians that are concerned. It should be society as a whole that should be concerned,” said Owen Robinson, the executive director of the alliance.
The order bans 12 countries, mostly in the Middle East and Africa. They include: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The order also partially restricts entry into the United States from seven countries, including: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
At Kid Care Pediatrics in College Park, Dr. Helena Bentley and her team care for children from birth to 18 years old.
“This is my heart right here. Coming in here, even when I have my ups and downs, I come into this office and I see a patient and I am happy,” said Dr. Helena Bentley, a general pediatrician at Kid Care Pediatrics.
Dr. Bentley has been a general pediatrician for 37 years, caring for healthy kids, patients with chronic and genetic diseases and patients from around the world, including Afghanistan and West Africa.
Right now, Dr. Bentley said she has a four-month-old baby girl from Haiti who is here for congenital heart disease surgery.
“Being in America is life-saving for her,” Bentley said. “They won’t be able to come here for surgery, so they may not be able to survive. It does break my heart.”
Haiti is among 12 countries facing Trump’s order for a full travel ban into the United States, and seven other countries will have partial restrictions.
“Most advanced life-saving care for things like heart disease, but for many other things as well, doesn’t exist in Haiti,” said Owen Robinson, the executive director with International Cardiac Alliance.
The International Cardiac Alliance partners with hospitals across the world to get Haitian children and young adults surgery in the U.S. and other nations.
The alliance said they have more than 300 children on their waitlist. They said they help roughly 50 patients a year.
Robinson said a travel ban in the U.S. would hinder patients getting care in other countries, as most flights have connections in the U.S. from Haiti, where a visa is required for layovers.
“If Haiti is completely sealed off or almost sealed off from the world and countries to do this surgery, then there is no hope for those kids,” Robinson said. “There’s no question that every month there will be kids who die specifically because of that.
“It’s not just the physicians that are concerned. It should be society as a whole that should be concerned.”
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