Medical evacuation of Haitian kids slows

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Documentation concerns are delaying private airlifts of critically ill Haitian children because officials say they don't want to be accused of kidnapping.

Before 10 U.S. missionaries were arrested as they tried to take children out of Haiti to the Dominican Republic in January, the largest pediatric field hospital in Haiti was airlifting 15 injured children aboard private flights to the United States daily. Since the arrests, the hospital has evacuated only three children on private flights, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Hospital administrator Elizabeth Greig said at least 10 children have died or become sicker while waiting to be airlifted out of the country that was ravaged by a 7-magnitude earthquake Jan. 12.

Before the arrests, doctors, pilots and aid workers airlifted children with life-threatening conditions out of Haiti after triage, then completed the paperwork after the children were stabilized. The arrests changed all that, officials told the Times.

Now, some doctors said they are being asked by U.S. and Haitian officials for documents proving that the children were orphans or that an adult traveling with them was a parent, a daunting task because records remain buried under rubble.

"Everything has slowed down, and most pilots are backing out of these medical missions with kids," said Scott Dorfman, a U.S. pilot who has flown 50 flights since the earthquake, transporting supplies, doctors and patients. "No matter what, I'm not taking off until I know we have those papers in hand. If it means the patient doesn't go, that's what it means."