Jaime Gómez González, MD, et al.
Foreword by Dr. Antonio Gómez, Pediatrician, Former Governor of Chocó.
www.amazon.com 240 pages.
Chocó, Colombia the paradise with access to the two oceans and with the spectacular wealth of minerals such as gold and platinum, with the biodiversity par excellence and the happy people continue to struggle in a crisis of infrastructure, health, education, employment and mortality. How is it possible?
The total crisis in Chocó extends to health due to the shortage of doctors, hospitals do not have the necessary equipment, and in the main hospital in Quibdó, doctors and paramedics are not paid for months. This hospital has been intervened several times, however, the crisis persists.
Thousands of compatriots abandoned and forgotten by the government suffer the consequences of diseases that can be prevented with a comprehensive health project.
Maternal mortality in Chocó is the highest in the western hemisphere. Infant mortality is five times higher than in the rest of Colombia; malnutrition afflicts at least 15,000 children.
The authors describe the health conditions, the persistence of endemic Malaria, an affliction that can be ended with a program to destroy the Anopheles mosquito.
And to add to this situation, the Corona virus or Covid 19 pandemic did its thing and only a third of the population was vaccinated.
In the last ten years, according to the Bishops of Chocó (2022), thousands of young people in Quibdó have perished due to endless violence. The Military Forces, for more efforts, have been powerless to end the violence.
Legal or illegal mining loots and destroys the environment. Taxes for extracting 47 percent of Colombia’s gold are negligible. Even more serious is the air export of platinum ore, which does not allow us to know what the exact production is.
Why the negligence of the Government in developing this treasure of nature? Colombia could be at the top of South America, in that enviable geographical position, where poverty should not exist.
The cover of the great artist Guiomar Flórez reveals the chaos of health in Chocó. Dr. Jaime Gómez González, with his professional team of medical collaborators, nurses, psychologists and lawyers, expose the situation and visualize what the future of health in Chocó would be like. We invite everyone, especially future generations, to read “Health in Chocó. A National Priority!” so that this crisis can be eliminated very soon and the necessary infrastructure is developed to meet the needs of the kind people of Chocó. The book can also be a model for other Colombian Departments that need to update their health services.
It is our hope that the future brings God’s blessings to end the humanitarian crisis in the richest Department of Colombia, the only one with two seas that must unite as soon as possible to end the misery of this privileged region of Colombia.
Other books by Dr. Jaime Gómez González in www.amazon.com son:
- The Colombian Channel. By Gomez, J. Moreno, JA and Baldwin, C.
- Chocó rhymes (50 sonnets).
- Turbulent Rains, The Aspersions against the Peasants of Colombia 2020.
- Hispanic American Medical Biographical Dictionary, Aproca, Caracas 2007 Andrés Eloy Blanco Award Leopoldo Briceño-Iragorry, MD.
- History of the Health of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina. National University of Colombia, Bogota 2010.