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26 T M C » P U L S E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 26 SALINAS, Puerto Rico — T he two doctors found Pedro Rodríguez nap- ping on a hammock under a torn blue tarp. He was surrounded by mountains, wild and lush, an occasional smattering of hot pink flowers from native Framboyan trees punctuating the deep green landscape. Rodríguez had come home to die among them. It was 10 months to the day since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, devastating an island already crippled by a financial crisis and still recovering from Hurricane Irma just two weeks prior. The mortality rate on the island jumped by 62 percent after the storm, with estimates that the number of hurricane-related deaths could be as high as 4,645, according to a study published in B y A l e x a n d r a B e c k e r Above: Dr. Mario Polo, left, and Dr. Ricardo Flores hand out toys to local kids in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Facing: Pedro Rodríguez at his home in Salinas. July by The New England Journal of Medicine. In the end, Maria would be the worst natural disaster on record for the U.S. commonwealth. An estimated 135,000-plus people relocated to the mainland over the six months following the hurricane, according to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies in New York. These displaced survivors joined droves of professionals who have been leaving the island for years to pursue better opportunities. But Puerto Rico is a place of paradox. Despite the ravaged, post-Maria landscape, despite the brain drain fueled by the island's ongoing financial crisis, Puerto Ricans are starting to come home—even people like Pedro Rodríguez, who face grave health challenges. They will not give up. A calling Before visiting Rodríguez, Dr. Mario Polo and Dr. Ricardo Flores stopped by a playground in Salinas with a trunk full of toys. Local kids arrived on bicycles and horseback and joined the doctors for a game of baseball. A boy in a faded striped shirt emptied his pockets, throwing a tattered black wallet and two packages of BBQ-flavored sun- flower seeds into the dirt, and ran to the outfield. Behind him, the plantain crops were once again thriving, ready to be fried or roasted or mashed into flour. Blue tarps serving as makeshift roofs filled the hills, and the families living under them were preparing to attend a region-wide food festival. The party would go late into the night, after the coqui frogs began their chorus, after the Medalla beer cans stacked up, after a karaoke singer serenaded the streets of Salinas with Frank Sinatra's "My Way." Y más, mucho más que esto, lo hice a mi manera. Polo smiled at the sound. "Here, there will always be a reason to cele- brate," he said. Like Rodríguez, Polo recently moved back to the island. He left his position as a neurointer- ventional surgeon with Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital so that he and his wife could raise their children closer to family. He also felt a calling. After Maria, Polo joined forces with Flores, a fellow Puerto Rico native and clinical director of the Cancer and Hematology Centers at Texas Children's Hospital The Woodlands, to create a Houston-based relief group called Texas United for Puerto Rico. Their mission was to collect med- ical supplies and get them to the island as quickly as possible. (continued) Health care in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria An Island Endures