There are about nine ambulances providing emergency transport from accident scenes to emergency centers around the island. UNIMED has two; AirEvac in West Bay has one; Woods Medical Clinic has one; there is the airport ambulance; the Red Cross and COPECO have one ambulance each; and the Roatan Fire Department has two ambulances.

The islanders relied on their neighbors and enterprising businessmen to help with emergency transport until the late 1990s. That changed in 1998, when Hurricane Mitch battered Roatan and the Fire Department received its ambulance. It was based at the Coxen Hole fire station and staffed by Fire Chief Elton Woods.

Emergency dispatching takes place via WhatsApp groups, where someone posts an emergency and another person reads it and says an ambulance has been contacted. It is a poor man’s emergency dispatch system, but it works.
Some believe it could work better. “It is a shame Roatan still doesn’t have an emergency dispatcher,” said Ana Svoboda, president of the Honduran Red Cross Bay Islands Council from 2016 to 2021. “This would reduce anxiety; get emergency services to accident scenes more quickly and ultimately save lives.”

It is a poor man’s emergency dispatch.

Roatan is now dotted with private clinics offering emergency ambulance services. West End-based UNIMED has two ambulances and provides services to tourists and locals. Their ambulances provide BLS, or basic life support, and DLS, or advanced life support. They have systems to treat heart failure. “Our doctors provide treatment on-site, not at the clinic,” says Daniel Cartagena, UNIMED’s manager since 2018. “We do the first assessment on-site, and if it is a motorcycle accident, we take them to Satuye Hospital.”

UNIMED is strategically located in West End and offers emergency transport, 24/7 emergency care, lab tests, X-rays, general surgery, air ambulance services, and an array of specialist doctors. UNIMED began in 2015 with a wheeled ambulance based at Coconut Tree in West End. “We assisted with many emergencies at that time,” Cartagena says.

In 2019, UNIMED expanded its services to provide a stabilization facility and care for minor emergencies. UNIMED is part of a chain of clinics and urgent care centers in Latin America. UNIMED is a sister company of AirEvac International and is owned by Raul Mendoza, a California businessman.

There are several other private clinic ambulance providers for cruise passengers in case of emergency. One of them is the island’s oldest private hospital, owned by Dr. Jackie Woods.

Dr. Woods opened Woods Medical Center, or WMC, on Main Street in Coxen Hole in 1999. From the beginning, the center has operated as a 24/7 emergency facility. Since 2023, it has had its own ambulance. “We only use the ambulance for cruise ship patients,” said Dr. Woods, owner of Woods Medical Center. In 2025, WMC has an intensive care unit, or ICU, that is able to stabilize a patient. “We can treat trauma,” Dr. Woods said.

The biggest necessity is the blood bank.

Other elements of good emergency treatment include the availability of emergency blood centers and 24/7 laboratories. The key is Coxen Hole’s Satuye Hospital, which stores Roatan’s blood supply. The typically stored supply of 10 to 12 pints of blood is small and easily depleted. “The biggest necessity is the blood bank, 10 to 12 pints of blood, and those can be drained with just a couple of motorcycle accidents,” said Jackie Woods. While the island’s Red Cross has a list of several donors with AB blood type, the price per pint is $60 to $70.

After operating for years at the mall in French Harbour, CEMESA is currently closed. CEMESA purchased a house from the former Roatan mayor at the intersection of Jackson Road and Main Road in Brick Bay and is working to open sometime in 2026.

Deadliest Air Disaster in Roatan’s History

Many passengers were thrown out of the fuselage and were floating, often unconscious, with them hip seatbelt attaching them to their seats.

According to some passengers the airplane had behaved as if has issues on the runway before takeoff. “It began moving around and making [excessive] noise,” remembers Liliana Estrada, one of the five passengers who survived the flight.

According to another survivor, a loud bang came from one of the engines as the plane was speeding up before takeoff. The airplane overshot the runway, but was able to become airborne. “From the liftoff to the crash, only around 30 seconds passed.” said one of the survivors, who wanted to remain anonymous for privacy and legal reasons. The pilot most likely made a decision to make a right turn into the open sea, circle around, and land the airplane on the same runway.

“Last thing I remember is being in the water and seeing the flashlight of the fishermen,” said Estrada. “They had to cut my seatbelts with a knife.” Estrada suffered a fractured pelvis, spine, and lacerations, and was transferred to CEMESA hospital for treatment. “It was a surreal experience. I am still in shock. I still cannot comprehend that I was there,” said Estrada.

The front of the fuselage, which held the two pilots, sank quickly. “The people who lost consciousness likely drowned, as they couldn’t keep themselves to keep afloat,” said Estrada.

The crash site was within view of Coxen Hole, the airport tower. There was a fishing boat in the vicinity. One of them was Eduardo Orellana, who was fishing with his friend on his 18 foot open boat called Miss Alaya when he noticed the airplane was in trouble.

They had to cut my seatbelts with a knife.

Orellana noticed the LANHSA airplane rapidly lose altitude from 100-150 meters and crash into the water. “It was flying east and veered to the right,” said Orellana, who was about 100 meters from the crash site. “We got there while the airplane was still floating. There were many bodies floating. It was a terrible site to witness,” said Orellana. “We saw the tail of the plane and heard people calling for help.”

When Orellana arrived at the crash site, the plane’s tail section was above water. Orellana called other boats for assistance and began rescuing survivors. “We pulled out the four that grabbed onto the boat,” said Orellana. The fifth person was calmer and floating without effort, and was left to be picked up by other boats.

There was no dock for the victims, so Orellana brought the survivors to the rocky eastern edge of the airport’s runway. According to Orellana, authorities arrived around 20 minutes after the crash. “The airport boat never came. Who came was the boat from Anthony’s Key and [Honduran] Navy, [in] around 30 minutes,” said Orellana.

People were floating with their heads down stuck by their seatbelts. “[For some] we had to cut seatbelts to free them,” said Orellana. “We still don’t know if the victims died on impact or drowned.”

Orellana believes that more people could have been rescued if airport rescue services were in place. “The airport was not prepared for this type of accident,” said Orellana. “There were no boats, no divers. The only boat they had was on land.” In fact, even the basics were not there: No boats ready to deploy, no dock set up to bring in crash victims. “They should have various [rescue] options. If one side would not work, they should have another site. At least sea was calm that night.”

According to Orellana and survivors the crash exposed lack of preparedness of several local authorities. The airport representative however said the airport rescue crews acted well. “Our response time to the scene was even faster than what’s on the norm,” said Fernando García, manager of the Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport.

The site where the plane crashed was identified that night with sonar, as more fishing boats arrived on the crash scene. Some rescue workers had hope that there were still survivors, and that they had perhaps stayed alive breathing out of an air pocket. A decision was made to attempt to rescue any possible victims trapped in the airplane.

In the evening, authorities contacted Monty Graham, a TDI trimix instructor with Roatan Tec Center Coconut Tree Divers, to attempt to retrieve the body of the last missing person. He decided it was too dangerous for what was most likely a body recovery operation.

To recover a body at night is extremely dangerous.

“They called me that night,” remembers Graham, who decided not to dive at night. “You are putting other people in danger. To recover a body at night is extremely dangerous. They are making impulse decisions,” said Graham. “It’s not a big enough aircraft to create any air pockets.”

The next morning, however, Graham dove to the wreck to retrieve the body of the last unaccounted passenger. Graham descended 48 meters about 1 kilometer south of the concrete barriers of the east end of the runway strip. He found the front of the cockpit completely destroyed and separated from the fuselage.

The fuselage was upside down and pointing west. “The nose was completely torn off the plane,” said Graham. “There was no more cockpit.” This finding suggested a very hard crash landing, but it is not known if the airplane flipped upside down before the crash or after impact with the water.

The plane was resting upside down on a short, sloping ledge. “We tried to open the back door. It was jammed,” said Graham, who had to leave his tanks behind and dive holding his breath to the back of the plane to retrieve the last body. “We had to take out a couple seats [as] the lady was all the way in the back.”

The airplane that was operated by LANHSA was a 35-year-old twin engine British Aerospace Jetstream 32. The motors powering the aircraft were turbo prop TPE331. The accident is under investigation by the airplane manufacturer. Línea Aérea Nacional de Honduras [LANHSA] A 2011 launched airline operating the plane, has ceased operations on April 2 for an indefinite period of time.

The pilot of the LANHSA aircraft was Luis Ángel Araya and his co-pilot was Francisco Lagos. Both of them died in the crash. One of the 12 passengers who died was the former congressman for Atlántida and Garifuna, musician Aurelio Martínez.

Roatan has seen an increase in air traffic and in- air accidents, several of them deadly. In May 2019, a single engine Piper Cherokee Six with the pilot and four passengers on board crashed right after takeoff from Roatan International Airport. The five died after the plane flipped upside down in three feet of water. The reasons for the plane’s engine failure and subsequent crash were undermined.

The most deadly crash until now took place in March 1990, when SAHSA airlines Douglas C-47 crashed on Roatan on a flight from Guanaja. An investigation determined that the aircraft, manufactured in 1944, encountered strong crosswinds and veered off the airport runway, and crashing into the sea.

After a Fire, Three Hospitals are being Built on the Island

Roatan has found itself in a health crisis. On April 19, around 9pm, Roatan Public Hospital in Coxen Hole burned down in a spectacular fire. The fire destroyed 95% of the 33 year old building except for a portion of the office annex.
No one was killed or gravely injured in the fire and 60 interned patients were transferred to two nearby private island hospitals. Wood Medical Center in Coxen Hole received most of the patients and the private Hospital Centro Medico Sampedrano (CEMESA) received another dozen. “All the emergencies were attended until May 10 [for] free,” said Dr. Jackie Wood, owner of the Wood Medical Center who also helped to build the original public hospital in 1991. “My heart was broken and I cried all night. You do not imagine what I feel to see all that work [turn to] ashes.”
The firemen concluded that faulty electric wiring was the reason for the fire. “A couple years back we had a fire in a maternity room for the same reason,” said Dr. Wood.
The spring of 2024 has been full of fires breaking out all over Roatan. There has been very little rain since the rainy season ended on the island in March. Dry as bone trees and cohunes became prone to catching fire and strong winds made things especially difficult to handle.

While the fire was a disaster, it also became an opportunity to quickly and efficiently upgrade the islands hospital facilities. While the public hospital building was gone there were plenty of doctors, underutilized private clinics, a network of community clinics, a semi finished hospital in Dixon Cove, and there was an 18,000 square foot Adventist center.

Instead of quickly finishing the new public hospital in Dixon Cove, the central government decided to build a “temporary” hospital in Coxen Hole. Instead of using facilities that are available, the government set up tents in hot weather at Julio Galindo stadium in Coxen Hole.

“My heart was broken and I cried all night.”

Another site in Loma Linda area of Coxen Hole was chosen by the central government as a site for an emergency, provisional 40 bed hospital and is estimated to cost 100-150 Million Lps. It has been planned to be finished in 90 days, but due to a complicated, heavily sloped site, that is unlikely to happen.

The Loma Linda hospital site is adorned with a huge poster “Xiomara Sí Cumple,” – “Xiomara does deliver.” In fact after the fire and presidential visit the island was dotted with “Xiomara Sí Cumple” signs. There is one such poster at the Roatan international airport, one in Dixon Cove, one in Loma Linda and one at Coxen Hole stadium. A kilometer away, while central government authorities were erecting those signs, Roatan Municipality completely demolished the burned out hospital and practically flattened the old hospital site.

All in all, the facility that was closest to being able to function as a temporary hospital was the Adventist center in French Harbour. Little Friends Foundation along with Roatan Municipality operated the COVID center at the Adventist center back in 2020. While the second story of the large building was used for consultations and beds, the first story is being readied to function as an emergency center for the emergency temporary hospital before the provisional hospital is finished and before the new hospital in Dixon Cove is completed.

Six weeks after the fire things are far for clear for many islanders in need of medical attention and confusion still persisted. “The ambulances take you from the street and don’t even know where to take you,” said Steven Guillen, president of Little Friends Foundation, a NGO that was in charge of building the Dixon Cove hospital facility. “If you are dying, you have to go to CEMESA.”

In May a woman in labor was asked for money from treatment at Woods Medical Center, she didn’t have the funds, so she was transferred to CEMESA designated as an emergency care center. The transport she was using broke down and she was transferred to another vehicle. By the time she arrived at CEMESA it was too late and she died.

That could have been avoided. The Adventist center was ready to operate two weeks after the hospital fire. The current construction work on the hospital is being paid by the Roatan Municipality and donations. There is a blood testing center for TB and HIV being built as well.

For the time being, nurses and doctors are allocated to several centers around the island. While Roatan Municipality is financially and technically capable of building, even equipping a public hospital, it does not feel capable of running the hospital with accredited and paid staff – that is a step too far.

The history of the 20,000 square foot Roatan Public hospital goes back to 1991. According to Dr. Jackie Wood, it cost the government $7 million to build. It could have been much more, but many good willed people helped it along. “Equipment was donated from the United Kingdom government (…) donations from Roatan people and private companies from Roatan and La Ceiba and the central government,” said Dr. Wood.

The island outgrew the medical facility within a couple decades, but the road to the new public hospital has had been fret with hopes, mistakes, delays, and wishful thinking.

In 2006, after 15 years of the Roatan Hospital serving the public, then Mayor Dale Jackson decided that it was time to build a new hospital. Land in Dixon Cove was purchased as “an emergency purchase.” Eighteen years later that emergency still hasn’t been resolved.

The one million dollar land cost paid was an extremely high cost for the municipality. It took the next administration of Mayor Julio Galindo to pay off the purchase completely. There was nothing done during the Mayor Dorn Ebanks tenure.

While the fire was a disaster, it also became an opportunity.

When Jerry Hynds became mayor in 2018, he was able to secure a $2 million donation from Kelcy Warren, US billionaire and owner of RECO, for the construction of the hospital in Dixon Cove. “When the funds ran out the Municipality started using some of their own funds to complete the gray work. “The original discussions were that the Municipality would do the gray work and they would finish the hospital,” says Guillen. Windows, doors, some of the sewage and water infrastructure was also finished. Roatan municipality spent $500,000 and within a couple of years there was a large, 75,000 square foot two story building sitting on a hill in Dixon Cove.

In Honduras many things are accomplished when local and central government belong to the same political party, that was not the case with National Party in Tegus and Liberal party on Roatan. “ [Mayor] Jerry [Hynds] said: ‘If they [central government] are not going to join, we are going to finish it,” said Guillen. “He had it in his mind that he was going to finish it one way or another.”

In fact the construction of the new public hospital was a joint effort and not only Kelcy Warren’s donation and municipal tax dollars funded it. “May people donated freight, equipment time and helped to reduce costs,” said Guillen. While these donations were not enumerated by Little Friends Foundation, they likely run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2022 the 75,000 square foot Dixon Cove hospital building has been finished in raw state with windows and doors placed. The building sits on 8.3 acres site and there is a basement. Electric, sewer and gas lines could be installed as per requirement.

“There were verbal agreements, but never any written agreements with any administration,” said Guillen. Several visits by central government contracted engineers and architects took place. Recommendations were made, fulfilled, but nothing was put on paper and signed. “Every time the central government sent a crew of engineers they came up with a list of changes. Moving and creating walls, doors,” said Guillen.

The reality was that Roatan’s politicians were working with best intentions in a constantly evolving political climate back in Tegucigalpa. “The idea was to pass the facility into the hands of the Honduran health ministry in a raw state, and for them to finish it up to their standards,” said Guillen. According to Guillen the land title has been transferred to the national government years ago.

After Ximara Castro’s Libre Party won the national elections in November 2021 the relationship between Roatan Municipality and José Manuel Matheu, Honduran Health Minister under President Xiomara Castro, was going well. “We had a very good relationship with him. He brought in IDB [International Development Bank],” said Guillen. That all ended when in December 2023 Matheu was replaced with Carlos Aguilar. Since nothing was written down and agreed, Municipality was left holding the bag.

After the public hospital burned down a political turf war for credit as far as who is building what with whom’s money on Roatan intensified. It seems that Honduran president’s Libre Party was not willing to give credit to local authorities who are affiliated with the Liberal Party.

Then there was the bigger issue. If the new Roatan hospital was to be finishing with locally done contractors and donated equipment there would no way for big players to make money and make themselves seem indispensable. If local authorities would solve their own infrastructure and health problems, like Roatan has attempted, there would be no need for dependency on international loan institutions. That would mean 2000 bankers and bureaucrats in IDB Washington DC headquarters would lose their salaries, and that cannot be.

According to Honduran authorities $47 million dollars is now needed to finish the new hospital and equip it. The around $2.5 million spent on the building by Warren and Municipality is a rounding error of the estimated remaining costs. Now plenty of companies will have an opportunity to skim off the very high top and make money in the bonanza.

Roatan Municipality is financially and technically capable of building, even equipping a public hospital.

Local authorities say, that the building could be finished and equipped and ready to open for a fraction of that sum. “We could get all the equipment in very good condition donated,” said Guillen.

That is unlikely to happen. Since 2010 IDB has allocated 35% of its annual loan approval to “small and vulnerable” members and Honduras is qualified as one of them. IDB constantly needs new projects to allocate millions, and tens of millions of loans. Finding donors for a new public hospital is good business for IDB and good for its bottom line.

For average islanders worried about their health, the money, the funding and technical matters are too complicated to contemplate. Yet, the fact is there is money to be made loaning out money. There is plenty of money to be made in the construction of a new hospital and plenty of entities are eyeing the Roatan project.

It is the central government that decides what the municipalities need, often with a faulty understanding of population dynamics and local idiosyncrasies. This is how Roatan Island ended up with a Coxen Hole desalination plant and José Santos Guardiola with a garbage dump in Punta Blanca that never opened. These white elephants were paid from loans and grants by IDF and Inter American Development Bank. These projects are expensive and justify the existence of large international lending institutions.

The sad part is not only about the debt that is unnecessarily created, it is also that Honduras does need government investment in other parts of the country and is not getting it. One such example is the rebuilding of Canal Maya (In the Sula Valley, Mainland Honduras) that was destroyed in the 2020 Hurricane season, yet there are no funds and no one to rebuild it.

Other than IDB, another winner in this situation and all this chaos could be CEMESA. They have secured an agreement with government for treatment of patients. What is not known is how much CEMESA charges the government for these services. CEMESA prices are high, an appendix surgery can cost Lps.50,000 or more.

After the fire, a fund was set up out of which CEMESA is paid by Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finances. “CEMESA don’t have 11 million Lps. This in an insurance fund,” said Doctor Lastenia Cruz, Roatan Hospital Director, on May 29. “We are in front of CEMESA, we are meeting them constantly.”

There is a great contrast with how government and private business deal with a fire, and efficient restructuring. For example Waldina’s Tapestry shop, a private business that burned to the ground in French Harbour in February 29, 2024. With very few resources, but with much motivation, the owner was able to rebuild and reopen her upholstery and sail repair business within weeks of the fire. A great contrast to the paralysis and confusion of the central government after the Roatan hospital fire.

At the end of June there was no agreement what to call the French Harbour Adventist hospital facility. Some islanders still call it the Adventist Center, some call it Adventist Hospital, and some still call it the COVID Center.

Still the Adventist Center has been receiving plenty of non emergency patients. On May 27, Aldin Ebanks, a patient from Coxen Hole, went to Wood Clinic in Coxen Hole where he was told to go CEMESA. At CEMESA he was told to go to the Adventist center. All this took time, money, and transport expense. He was diagnosed with water in his lungs, and treated at the Adventist Center.

Roatan’s politicians were working with best intentions in a constantly evolving political climate.

The Adventist center is now open 24 hours a day and the number of specialists working at the Adventist center has been gradually increasing. “The Adventist center opening will cover all the services required by the population,” said Guillen. “They have greater capacity than the original public hospital.”

There is a plan to use both the downstairs and upstairs of the Adventist Center. The Municipal is making plans to turn the two story building into a fully functional hospital. The facility is actually larger than the original public hospital in Coxen Hole.“We are trying to centralize everything here,” said Guillen.

While the Adventist organization is letting the Honduran ministry of health use the facility without a written contract. Again, this could lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. Who pays for electricity costs, for maintenance costs, or for damages is not 100% clear. “They [central government] should work with the Municipality to set up this [Adventist Center],” said Guillen. “We don’t know how long they will be on temporary basis.”

Some consultation services were decentralized from the public hospital to community clinics outside of big towns. The recently opened clinic in Flowers Bay is picking up plenty of work.

The island’s medical situation will clear itself out in a matter of a year, or two. There is one question that remains and that is whether perhaps the central government and some international organizations, despite what they say and want you to believe, are not there to help you in the most sensible and efficient way, but to exploit your problems to the advantage on interest groups.

Many of us agree to pretend that police, health, education and emigration services are here to help. We are afraid to admit how inefficient, malevolent and expensive these government entities are. The cost of realizing that would be we would have to do something about it. It is easier just to go on pretending.

$47 million dollars is now needed to finish the new hospital.

A Large, Potentially Huge Development Project Breaks Ground on Roatan

Próspera’s website states that by 2025 the project will have a “foreign direct investment of at least $500M and new jobs created (direct) of at least 10,000.” On an island of 100,000 people theses numbers are staggering. If Próspera’s goals will ever be achieved they key will lie in tying the project to Honduras’ “Zonas de empleo y desarollo económico” [ZEDE] – Zone for Employment and Economic Development. Próspera is the first company to take advantage of this ZEDE laws passed in 2015. While many islanders dismiss the legislation as irrelevant to their lives, some see its potential as an opportunity for a business boom and others see it as threat to property ownership in Honduras.

The man behind Próspera is Erick Brimen, the company’s Venezuelan born and US educated CEO. His 2005 thesis in Babson College was “how one could direct market forces to solve social problems,” and he sees Roatan Próspera doing just that. While Brimen has been coming to the island since 2016, he has been thinking about Roatan since high school.

“Foreign direct investment of at least $500M and new jobs created (direct) of at least 10,000.” 

In 2002 Brimen heard a high school friend talk about Roatan and describing the island’s potential as being held back because of the lack of legal infrastructure that Cayman Islands had. That friend was Tristan Monterroso, a Roatanian pastor who now sits on Próspera’s council. “When Honduras past the ZEDEs law and the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional it clicked on me that that could be a delivery mechanism for a place like Roatan to have more prosperity,” said Brimen. Two islanders are now part of the project: Tristan Monterroso and Duane McNab, owner of Max Communications and Próspera’s Council Member.

Próspera has begun on an elongated, meandering 58-acre property just east of Crawfish Rock. The site has about 300 feet of beach but its 750-acre master plan calls for 1.2-kilometer beachfront. “Real estate is heavily financed with debt and other sources of capital.” Many of buildings on the master plan are five to seven stories tall being by far the highest buildings on Roatan. Próspera aims at housing a Marine Center, a University and a Hospital that would provide jobs and create a hub and an “economic development platform” for entrepreneurs from around the world and Honduras. “A platform like PRÓSPERA is the future of the island,” said Duane McNab.

Próspera aims at not to be limited to one location on Roatan, and Brimen sees his project not only expanding around Crawfish Rock, but thought the island and beyond. “The idea is to have multiple hubs thought the island that voluntarily annex,” said Brimen. “We don’t own it all; in fact we don’t have to own it for it to become incorporated.” Brimen says that Próspera has already raised $17.5 million from investors and aims to secure another $30 million in a couple years.

“The idea is to have multiple hubs thought the island that voluntarily annex.”

The project’s direct neighbors in Crawfish Rock seem to be supportive of Próspera, but deeply apprehensive of ZEDE laws and it is impossible to separate the two. Próspera wouldn’t have been formed and the capital couldn’t have been attracted if it wasn’t for ZEDES. “I’m in favor of Próspera. I believe they will take our island and Crawfish Rock out of the hole we’re in. I lived over 13 years in Crawfish Rock before I could get running water,” says Virginia Cecilia Mann, resident of Crawfish Rock. Mann says that 95% of Crawfish Rockers are worried of being displaced by the ZEDE laws.

One of the attractions of becoming part of Próspera and ZEDEs are the lower overall taxes: income tax of 10%, land tax of 1 to 2.5%, and 5% VAT sales tax.  “Those are the taxes you pay to Próspera ZEDE. A percentage of these taxes are then paid to five destinations including central government and the Municipality,” said Brimen.  

Launching of a company that as a first takes advantage of ZEDE legislature caused plenty of stir, pushback and questions from locals. A petition organized by “Alliance for the defense of the Bay Islands Territory” and in part by Irma Brady of BICA aims to repeal the ZEDE legislation. Using a change.org platform the group launched a appeal that has gathered 16,000 signatures by September 24. “We don’t aspire to become theoretical experiences of supposed libertarian investors,” stated the petition. “Expropriation (…) to expand the ZEDE territory, for its (sic!) Eventual delivery to foreign investors is unacceptable.”

While some opposing Próspera and ZEDE have put their discontent in words, others have escalated to physical action. A September 18 Brimen’s meeting with Crawfish Rock residents was interrupted by Roatan’s Municipal Police. “My security was threatened because I was seeking to explain how and why ZEDEs and in particular Próspera ZEDE cannot expropriate,” Brimen wrote on public Roatan Whatsapp security group. “I have been threatened by people in powerful positions so if something happens to me, please know it was not an accident.”

Próspera and Roatan are set for a bumpy ride during unpredictable times on a global scale. Honduras is increasing becoming a country of many laws and people who know how to use and interpret these laws are at an advantage. On Roatan alone there are PMAIB laws, ZOLITUR laws, COVID-19 laws, and now there is the ZEDE.  Seeing the big picture in all of this is not easy, but some try to see the positive. “Big projects like this going on despite the pandemic are a good signal,” said about Próspera Dino Silvestri, Governor of the Bay Islands.

Central Government’s Message to Bay Islanders: Stay Home and Find Your Own Money for COVID-19 Emergency Center

There is another problem: according to Jayleen Coleman, Bay Islands Health Chief, there are also no trained medical technicians that would be able to maintain the respirators in operation, once Roatan would get them.

According to Dr. Paul Gale of the Cornerstone Clinic, at AKR in Sandy Bay, the only respirator that was being used at Roatan’s CEMESA hospital has been moved to San Pedro Sula before the lockdown begun. Now Bay Islanders have to secure medical equipment themselves. This is not atypical in a country of 9 million that has just 12 government owned respirators, according to mainland physician Dr. Victor Flores. According to Dr. Gale, the asymptomatic patients that would test positive for COVID-19 would be give acetaminophen and perhaps ivermectin.

While there are no respirators and few medicines, Roatanians are well on their way to finishing a COVID-19 treatment center. The facility is located on the second floor of the 110 by 180 foot Seventh Day Adventist convention center in French Harbour. The bare-bones facility has 30 beds, and there can be as many as 80 beds “spaced one meter apart,” according Dr. Gale. There are three beds placed on the speaking podium of the auditorium designated for serious COVID cases.

“When we started doctors didn’t want to come to work”.

The funds for the center come from private donations made to the Little Friends Foundation NGO whose president of the board is Steven Guillen. The fund has around $265,000 and $200,000 was donated by anonymous foreign donor. “[Central] Government only gave Lps. 150,000 ($6,000),” said about the fund Guillen. “We have to make it on our own.” This is tiny fraction of the $119 million loan approved for Honduras by World Bank and $143 provided by the International Monetary fund.

Erick Anderson, a Roatan resident and businessman, was one of the donors to the island’s COVID-19 emergency fund. “I think Michael Douglass could be interested in making a donation,” said Anderson about the American actor who has been his friend and also owns property in the island. Donations to the fund can be made by contacting the Little Friends Foundation at Littlefriendsfoundation@yahoo.com

Controlled media’s fear based coverage of the virus crisis caused hysteria and panic. “When we started doctors didn’t want to come to work,” Dr. Gale remembers the first weeks of the COVID-19 scare. “It’s much better now.”

While medical professionals abandoned their workplaces the anxiety of the population at risk soared. The groups that are the majority of the COVID-19 fatalities are those that are old, are already seriously sick and those with compromised immune system. Of the estimated 3,000 foreign residents on Roatan, majority are over 60-years-old and especially vulnerable to the Wuhan virus. Still the largest group susceptible to viruses are the island’s poor.  Around half of the island’s 100,000 residents live in poverty sustaining themselves on a diet of GMO rice, red beans, corn flour and vegetable oil – high in sugar, fats, and with little nutritional value or vitamins.

Both central and local governments had done nothing to boost these people’s immunity, and have actually compromised it further limiting the islander’s ability to exercise, take in vitamin D from the sun and treat preexisting heath conditions. These vulnerable island residents will be like sitting ducks for any virus, or a mosquito born disease.

While Honduras suffers epidemics yearly, what the country’s population is not accustomed to is martial law restrictions of house-arrest, forced business shut down and restrictions on travel. In 2019 Honduras registered 115,000 cases of dengue and 177 deaths, its worst outbreak in 50 years. In 2019 Honduras had hundreds of cases of mosquito born chikungunya and zica. Also in 2008 Honduras reported over 10,000 malaria cases, some of them deadly.

Until now Honduras reported 2,006 COVID-19 cases and 116 with COVID-19 deaths. The global lockdown strategy that Honduras is a part of could eventually be seen as the biggest medical and economic policy mistake in human history.

My recent foray into the Honduran medical system has been extremely edifying. I am one of the lucky small percentages of Hondurans who have private health insurance via my Association as an attorney and via co-pay with the Honduras Medical Center (HMC) in Tegucigalpa. In the past year, I’ve seen eight doctors total and had multiple expensive and unnecessary tests done: EKG, EEG, Holter, Doppler ultrasound, chest X-rays, nine pages of blood work results from a laboratory, a CT scan with contrast (allergic to the dye) and pulmonary stress test.

All this brought me is confusion. I was presented with a plethora of diagnosis: pulmonary embolism, cognitive heart failure, asthma, fibromyalgia, thrombosis, liver disease and when all else fails the standard diagnosis is stress and anxiety. Indeed, this process and false diagnosis has brought on plenty of stress and anxiety.

Having grown up in a small town with no medical doctor I have a very high regard for physicians. For the first seven years of my life I suffered at the hands of an overzealous nurse who enjoyed administering endless injections.

While there was a time once when doctors and physicians cared and listened, that time is long gone. Of the eight physicians I’ve visited: General Practitioner, internal medicine, cardiologist, radiologist, cardiovascular specialist, pulmonologist, rheumatologist, OBGY, No one has my full medical history as he took the time to collect the data and write it down.

Eventually I had the privilege of knowing the most caring, calm and compassionate doctor I’ve ever had the privileged to meet, Dr. Humphreys. He takes time with his patients, takes their clinical and family history and genuinely listens. I spent roughly 18 minutes with each of the specialist and honestly, I’ve filled out government forms that have more of my clinical history than they requested.

Now the insurance insanity was a whole other matter. You must pay upfront for the bar association insurance then send the receipts with a request for reimbursement. Not good if you don’t have a credit card or other means to pay up front and wait for the reimbursement. The co-pay system with the hospital means you pay cost price for the tests and “minimal” fees for the doctors’ appointments. In case you were counting there were four on my last visit.

Real culprit of all my maladies is quite surprising.

I was told when CEMESA hospital took over the second floor at the Mall in French Harbor that they would offer insurance locally, but as far as I know this hasn’t happened. As of last week Thursday, it takes 30 minutes for them to check you in if you’re paying cash and 40 minutes to check out if they don’t intern you. I’ve heard horror stories about insurance billing but haven’t used my coverage there.

The real culprit of all my maladies is quite surprising, if you are experiencing shortness of breath, chest pain, vertigo, brain fog, fatigue, blurred vision, headache, joint pain, excessive thirst and a slew of other symptoms, please don’t let a doctor tell you it’s stress, or anxiety if you know different. I’ve been sent away with no clear diagnosis and what I am now inferring were guesses as to what ailed me.

Please don’t dismiss your concerns and write it off as stress or mental health, at one point I was called a hypochondriac. After this last bout with the doctors and insurance I was about to start seeing a mental health professional.

Turns out all you need is a friend and you can diagnose yourself better than any CT scan can. A friend with severe allergies sat and brainstormed with me. Another friend, a journalist, induced a non-medical epiphany over lunch.

The conclusion was I have mold! Yes, that’s right… mold. That type of mold that is the toxic kind and lives hidden in the walls. That mold can silently poison you. For many people mold disease is real and very serious.

Mold can make you very, very sick. So please check your home, office or a unventilated bathroom for its signs as the rainy season kicks into gear. An ounce of caution can save you a pound of cure. And if you find any traces of mold have a professional come remove it or move out till it’s all gone.