MEDICAL CRISIS : PUERTO RICO

By: Hong Kong

CAGUAS. P.R. : Doctors scramble to avert a public health disaster; 'The whole island is critical'.

Harry Figueroa, a teacher who went a week without the oxygen that helped him breathe, died here last week at 58.

His body went unrefrigerated for so long that the funeral director could not embalm his badly decomposed corpse.

Miguel B. Beros's kidneys are failing. His physicians at the intensive care unit at  Doctor's Hospital  in Carolina are treating him for a bacterial disease that he probably caught in floodwater's  contaminated with animal urine.

Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, many sick people across the island remain in mortal peril.

''Because of the electricity situation, a lot of people died, and are still dying,''said Mr. Figueroa's daughter. ''You can't get sick now.''

The government's announcements each morning about the recovery effort are often upbeat, but beyond them are hidden emergencies.

Seriously ill dialysis patients across Puerto Rico have seen their treatment hours reduced by 25 per cent because the centers still lack a steady supply of diesel to run their generators.

Less than half of Puerto Rico's medical employees have reported to work in the weeks since the storm, federal health officials said.