Without My Leg, I Am A Freak

Meg Laughlin: JIMANI, Dominican Republic — At the public hospital in this border town, no one can say how many amputations have been done since the earthquake. One surgeon says he did 32 yesterday. Another says 22 in the two days before. Mostly legs. Mostly from infection.

They come in truck beds, the backseats of taxis and police vans. Tuesday, a tap-tap, one of the small colorful Haitian buses, showed up full of people, most of them from Petionville, the exclusive enclave of Port-au-Prince.

The vehicles line up, waiting for their broken cargo to be unloaded to dusty gurneys. Unless they are critical, the victims line the entrance on the floor for days.

The lucky ones have crushed arms and legs but keep their limbs. They lie in body casts, whole. They may limp. They may need canes. But they do not belong to the burgeoning class of Haitian amputees.