Following two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela, emergency medical teams have turned an abandoned McDonald’s restaurant into a temporary clinic as thousands of survivors seek urgent treatment in the disaster-hit region of La Guaira state.
The twin quakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, caused widespread destruction across the area, collapsing buildings and overwhelming the already limited healthcare system. Official figures report more than 2,600 deaths, with thousands more injured and displaced.
In Caraballeda, one of the worst-affected areas, the fast-food outlet has been repurposed into a full-scale makeshift medical facility. Medical staff said the site is now treating patients suffering from conditions ranging from anxiety attacks and high blood pressure crises to gastrointestinal illnesses linked to poor living conditions after the disaster.
The facility has been transformed into a structured field hospital, complete with triage zones, a pharmacy, storage areas and spaces dedicated to psychological and even veterinary care. More than 30 volunteer doctors are working around the clock to manage the surge in patients.
At what was once a restaurant counter, donated food such as arepas and sandwiches are now being distributed to survivors, while former service areas have been converted into shelters for rescued animals. The unusual transformation reflects the scale of the humanitarian crisis unfolding on the ground.
Elsewhere, a second emergency centre set up inside a bus terminal in Catia La Mar has already treated nearly 4,000 patients, as hospitals in the region were quickly overwhelmed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
One of the survivors, a 13-year-old boy, described being trapped under rubble for 16 hours before being rescued. He said he witnessed the deaths of family members during the collapse but found relief only after seeing rescue workers arrive.
Medical staff at the bus terminal have described harrowing scenes, with bodies left in the open and overwhelmed morgue facilities unable to cope during the peak of the disaster response.
Health professionals working on site also warned that overcrowded conditions in makeshift shelters are increasing the risk of infectious disease outbreaks, with cases of diarrhoea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal illnesses already being reported.
Authorities and medical experts have cautioned that the risk of epidemics is rising as displaced residents continue to fill temporary shelters, while aid efforts struggle to match the scale of the humanitarian emergency.
