The former governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, tweeted a picture of doctors operating by cell phone light. This picture is worth a thousand words and raises questions about President Donald Trump’s remarks about the effectiveness of his relief efforts for the island.
The former governor challenged Donald Trump’s self-rating of a “10” when he tweeted a picture of a group of surgeons operating on a patient using only the light of their cell phone. Other surgeons use flashlights, as well, and 33 days have passed since Hurricane Maria hit the island.
This is what POTUS calls a 10! Surgery performed with cellphones as flashlights in Puerto Rico today. pic.twitter.com/5pnK5dkkE6
— Alejandro (@agarciapadilla) October 21, 2017
The picture went viral and has amassed nearly 10,000 retweets. In addition, other users have expressed their outrage towards the current administration for their lack of aid to the U.S territory. Puerto Rico has 3.5 million American citizens who are still suffering from the lack of basic necessities.
About 28% of the island is still without running water and nearly 90% of the island has no electrical power. Surgeons having to resort to using their cell phones as a means to get light would never happen in the United States over a month into a natural disaster.
Day 31:
84% of Puerto Rico is w/o power
28% w/o running water
Yesterday, a surgery was conducted by cellphone light.
An affront to humanity. https://t.co/Rl1ZfqEJOa— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) October 21, 2017
Donald Trump, who is often quick to respond to his naysayers on Twitter, has yet to confront the former governor of Puerto Rico. It’s probable that he will soon, though, judging by the President’s knack to defend himself.
Four days ago, on October 19th, Trump met current Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rossello in the White House and got asked what he would grade his relief efforts. “I would give myself a 10,” said the President.
“I think we’ve done a really great job and we’ve had tremendous cooperation from the governor,” he continued. “And we are getting there and people are really seeing the effort that’s been put into Puerto Rico.”
Just a week before his vigorous message, Trump tweeted that he wanted to retrieve federal aid from the island because he couldn’t keep FEMA in Puerto Rico “forever.”
It was great to have Governor @RicardoRossello of #PuertoRico🇵🇷with us at the @WhiteHouse today. We are with you! #PRStrong pic.twitter.com/Op2xDZxvNc
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2017
“In the emergencies, things might have the appearance that they are stabilizing at one point,” Rossello said about the island’s conditions. “But you always have future problems that can arise such as public health emergencies and otherwise.”
He was careful not to get on the President’s bad side in fear of losing the little help they are getting. The mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, was very vocal about the President’s poor response to the crisis that the island is still going through.
“I think it’s conduct unbecoming of a leader of the free world,” said Puerto Rico’s capital’s mayor to the media on October 13th. She was referencing Trump’s early tweets that blamed the residents of the island for the hurricane’s devastation.
We need power 💡 We need power 💡 We need power 💡 We need power 💡 We need power 💡 We need power 💡 We need power 💡 We need power 💡
— Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 (@PuertoRicoPUR) October 21, 2017
Article inspired by NY Daily News // Ex-governor of Puerto Rico tweets photo of surgeons operating by cell phone light