Inside Venezuela's crumbling public health care system

Our hospital source just kept repeating, "There are almost zero antibiotics, no surgical gowns, no internal sutures, no gauze, no hypertension meds, no chemotherapy. Hospitals don't have bed sheets, food or water." There's no soap. There's no air conditioning. In short, he said, performing surgery is like practicing battlefield medicine. We were sitting at a hotel in a country that sits atop more oil than Saudi Arabia -- Venezuela. By all rights, Venezuela should be one of the world's wealthiest nations. But it's not. Just a decade ago, Venezuela was renowned for pumping out oil and 13 titles for Miss Universe and Miss World, for being a plastic surgery mecca and culinary capital. It has since become the world's worst-performing economy, and watchdog groups say, Caracas the world's most dangerous city. More…