The inside of one of the operating rooms at Jose Manuel de Los Rios children's hospital in Caracas, Venezuela ©BBC
With only four out of nine functioning operating rooms and a deficiency of medicine to treat the sick, Latin America's former best hospital has drastically changed over the course of time. The economic crisis has taken an invariably great toll on the health care system. With paint peeling off the walls, electric cables hanging about, and a room filled with broken medical equipment, Jose Manuel de Los Rios children's hospital in Caracas, Venezuela is not what it used to be.
A long-time employee of the hospital, Dr. Huniades Urbina-Medina, recalls how patients from all over the region would travel to the hospital, and they even had a waiting list for scheduled 5,500 surgeries. Fast-forward five years later, he and his staff can't even treat a 12-year-old boy suffering from meningitis due to the lack of drugs.
The lack of proper healthcare also extends it reach to malnourished babies and a high infant mortality rate, leaving parents hopeless, and some with no other choice but to send their children to foster homes.
To read more about the state of Venezuela's health and the foster homes around the country, click here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37562058
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