In the wake of the violent gang offensive in northern Cité Soleil, nurses have emerged as the unsung heroes of Haiti’s collapsing health system. Speaking to Le Nouvelliste, a nurse from the Fontaine Hospital Center (CHF) described the terrifying moment when gunfire reached the facility’s walls on May 10, 2026. Despite the “total panic,” she and her colleagues remained at the bedsides of maternity patients until an emergency evacuation was ordered. “I left with a sense of helplessness, feeling like I had abandoned people who were counting on me,” she shared.
A second nurse, working for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Drouillard, recounted braving active combat zones to reach her shift. Upon arrival, she discovered a security guard had already been hit by a stray bullet. Over the next twelve hours, her team treated 40 gunshot victims. The facility was eventually forced to suspend operations as the fighting intensified. Her most haunting memory remains the four wounded people who arrived just as the doors were being locked; one died from blood loss before they could be transferred. Their stories highlight the vital, yet dangerous, role of nursing in a territory where the “power to act” is constantly threatened by armed violence.
