Risk you know. Im going to call on al jazeera. Hello and welcome to rewind were back here at doha as Iconic Museum of islamic art for another look back at some of the best documentaries weve brought you over the past 10 years this week were returning to the United States and 2013 at that time Cleveland Ohio was experiencing one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the industrialized world disproportionately affecting africanamerican malpas. The racial gap is growing wider and many mothers continue to experience this tragic loss thats why weve chosen to air this important investigation again from aljazeera is faultline series here is americas infant mortality crisis. Every year in america over 11000. 00 babies die on the day that theyre born. Most of just born too early their vital organs hearts and lungs still on form. Even those who survive beyond 24 hours often die before their 1st birthday. But if the baby is africanamerican they are more than twice as likely to die. Both lines travels to Cleveland Ohio to look at whats causing these deaths and to try to find out why the United States has the worst rates of infant mortality in the industrialized world. Its monday morning in clevelands Metro Health Hospital d taking. A newborn baby boy has just been rushed into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit close to me curious. Weighing just over 2 pounds hes 14 weeks premature. It means he was only in the womb for less than 6 months is really frightening to see his Blood Pressure very low or high right now trying to get care for the baby has just been born here literally within the last couple of hours right now getting respiration insistence on an intravenous drip inserted this is the kind of summary of the happens all the time on this board for. Medical advances have dramatically improved the odds of survival for premature babies but they havent changed one aspect of this crisis. That almost all of the babies in this ward a black. Just under 40 percent of the babies who are born are african in their. But they contribute. To the babies. In the 1st year of life so you have this huge huge huge disparity and thats kind of business as usual its. Baby time is just as all but hes on a life support machine. The nurse is a worried about his chances of survival. Is so premature he cant breathe without a machine pumping oxygen through his tiny lungs. Its an extreme measure for such a small baby it puts him at high risk for infection and internal bleeding. To. Say well its an agonizing time. Stay with him. A single mother with 3 other children. Keep the family just above the poverty line. So i had to go. Off to working an overnight shift finishing at 7 in the morning. Having contractions. She was rushed to hospital and gave birth. But now she has to get back to work. This. Now and then hes going to be in hospital. For the next couple of minutes somebody that can. Track such an oxygen being person in their lives even if a baby can be saved in an e. Q. Its an outcome and the cost doctors say could be prevented here literally talking about several 1000. 00 per day so if you have a baby whos been the hospital for 8 months the math is pretty easy youre closing in on a 1000000. 00 a care just to get that baby home if you could prevent one of those preemies you save the system hundreds of thousands of dollars thats why you know access to care and prenatal care is so vital. If you have to have a baby born prematurely United States is one of the best places in the world for that baby to be born are enable intensive care units are some of the best if not the best in the world thats not the point dr author james is one of the leading infant mortality experts in the United States he says that the heart of the problem lies outside of the hospitals unfortunately in this country when we experience families who are in crisis we generally throw everything in the kitchen sink at them to try to assist and help during that period of time but we are not anywhere close to being that regionalism about trying to practice Preventive Medicine about trying to keep families out of crisis. Everywhere you look in cleveland it seems those crises are playing out. Right here. In a corner of a Public Cemetery 24 year old. Mayo is visiting the grave of infant son jason on. He died 2 weeks ago. The burial site some marks with nothing more than wooden sticks but each one represents a story of personal loss. Just a number. And just dont feel like people right here just a bunch of. This in the hospital. After starlight a few old farm workers. Because most families. I think how much better. When they had given birth to twins who were more than 3 months premature j. C. On his brother died within the 1st few hours and the surviving child spent time in intensive care before he was healthy enough to leave the hospital. Linae says everything was normal until one night when jason was 4 months old he stopped breathing in his sleep and died. I dont know where he was but its on. And i woke up and when i played some up i was just like. Lets say. The doctors told him a it was sudden infant death syndrome or said the 3rd leading cause of infant death. That loose see are. The p. C. L. So my kids are my soul i kiss our heart. Now lenny is focused on raising her 2 year old daughter and 6 year old son out of school from hyannis port and working 7 days a week and no ask. Is my managers cluttered but everything stress everything. And i just feel so horrible because i was a neighbor for sake of my kids and everybody say yes because we have protected good as a pair that are like us they are. So what is it thats causing so many babies to die here in the city. Why and those babies predominately africanamerican and whats being done to try to stop it. And. The reasons for him from mortality a complex good one everyone agrees is the poverty plays upon. The rates of worst in the cities of the south in the rust belt with their legacies of economic collapse and racial division. And one of the hardest hit cities is cleveland. Here the Unemployment Rate for whites is around 6 percent. Traffic in americans that number is almost 3 times the lion. Like many cities across america the sights of boarded up businesses and devastated neighborhoods is something thats become increasingly common but whats remarkable about cleveland is that it also happens to be the worst city in the entire United States but in from what oddities. In cleveland there are neighborhoods where the infant mortality rate is worse than that of countries like guatemala botswana and even north korea. Eric price is a lifelong cleveland resident. He says the scale of the problem is the product of living in a forgotten city should be a great area it was great for bringing up kids it was great educationally there was a middle class typical middle class midwestern neighborhood. Eric remembers these neighborhoods as prosperous places when transport oil and steel drove the citys economy. But now there are no jobs of course theres no money theyve a start tearing down schools they dont care about educational systems in the care about a health care you know i know parents who struggle to feed their kids on a daily basis. We literally have nothing. With the collapse of those communities have come soaring rates of infant mortality fact is the social historians of the city say. Sometimes we want to deal with just the medical piece which is really important because people are dying babies are dying but we also have to look at what is feeding that continuously and if people dont have access to good housing they dont have access to healthy food if they dont have access to money to buy food all of those things then were going to continue to see these kinds of statistics. 21 year old ariel smith is homeless unemployed and 8 months pregnant with her 1st child. The father of her unborn baby was sent to prison 2 months ago. Shes been struggling to get by and it seems. In this situation that i mean theres not a situation for anybody pregnant to being. The be homeless and then i have a child on the way this is the worst situation that i feel like i could possibly be. Ariel has known haunch it i retired life. She was raised in foster care and she says. Her baby will be the only real family she has ever known. I dont have a. Heart on. Everything. But you know somebody conditionally no matter what. I really only support is Charles Wright so when a Community Health worker. Charles retta works for a program called moms fust that supports new and expecting mothers in clevelands toughest neighborhoods when i got to provide the women with information is support for him to help them get some of the things they need for their babies because a lot of babies were dying in this neighborhood. But over the years charles has been doing a lot more than just Offering Health advice 1st. She spends most of her time helping women navigate what she says is a broken welfare system. People who work with you know the situation. Today is helping ariel get Food Assistance that has been slow to come you know she said. She had a benefit. She would have to get. Now to put it back on the back she still benefits. Because you missed the modern age. 20. 5 different interview. So it takes a while to get. That i dont want to have to. For 36 months i dont want to have to have a full 12 months you know like i want to really depend on myself at this time i do need. To pursue her education but was told that she wouldnt be eligible for welfare unless she took an unpaid job even though shes pregnant is life for me anyway so i have to do what it is no other way around a lot of Times Program to stuff care about is numbers they dont care about people care about people. Convinced the system is failing to address the root causes of problems that it was designed to solve. This is a good stop cut news program thats helping people who doesnt change you know see more violence. More family tragedies. Cleveland has always been the worst city in america in for mortality. The problem at a National Level has actually been improving clevelands numbers have been getting worse. Figures attract. By the Citys Department of health so weve come hits in city hall to speak to the person in charge and also what theyre doing to address what many here are saying is a crisis facing the city. As clevelands Public Health director. Is in charge of pregnancy programs like moms for the designed to help pregnant mothers. Despite the success of that program some that its only reaching a fraction of the population needs help. Through this program we have had tremendous success in fact our most recent reports on our if it mortality rate demonstrate that there has been a steady decline in the if the what talladega rate of our participant population the city of cleveland if you compare the rate its worse than any other u. S. City ok so are you aware of not that we were the absolute worst. Did you think youre in the bottom 5 cleveland is one of the cities one of the major large metropolitan cities that has a major issue with every mortality as well as many of the other Health Care Issues but if you look at the picture of the city the rate the worst in countries like albania and sri lanka this is this is actually not something you can be proud of were not nor we indicate that were proud of our numbers were proud of the effort were proud of the effort that clevelanders are putting forth to begin to address this. So much since by the women who are falling outside the net. Here to stay. Off the walking out of the interview we were told that the official wasnt prepared for such specific questions even though weve been clear we wanted to speak about infant mortality throughout cleveland well that was a surprising response to some Pretty Simple questions and the interesting thing for me was that not only do the fishes here in cleveland not seem to want to talk about the city one rate of infant mortality they also dont even seem to know quite how bad those numbers are. Clevelands economic struggles its decayed neighborhoods with their rampant unemployment levels and an even access to health care have combined to turn the city into americas infant mortality capital. But if that wasnt a perfect enough storm now politicians at the state level considering the cuts to health care. The politicians in columbus are playing games to be quite blunt and we may not get can literally billions of dollars that we have coming to us that were were spending the money but it may not be coming back to us because politicians of this. They want to play politics. With disastrous 1st date all certainly be disastrous for the hospital making. This summer ohios state capital columbus was the scene of heated debate over whether or not to expand Health Care Coverage for the working poor. Question is shall they meant to be agreed upon ohios Republican Controlled Legislature turned down 13000000000. 00 in extra funding from the federal government for what appeared to be ideological reasons i urged the failure of of this amendment they even rejected a comparatively small emergency measure aimed at reducing the states woeful infant mortality rate we asked for in this budget 3800000. 00 to be targeted where the masses of racial and ethnic minorities live in the state of ohio allowing infants to live until their 1st birthday. Senates attracted to virus has been working for years to redress Racial Health disparities in ohio. She proposed an amendment to ohios budget to Fund Health Programs to specifically reducing from mortality in minority communities every public official will hold up a baby will talk about how children are our greatest assets but it seems to some communities and the community that i represent that some babies matter more than others those posts a nay the proposal went nowhere the majority voting to move ahead without the amendment for doing all for the poor but you dont do it by making it easy for them to stand poverty you have to drive them out make them uncomfortable in their poverty and they will do for themselves they were earn for themselves and they will be much better off at the end of the day. When they have earned it on their own versus when they have gotten handouts. Why even with politicians in a state clearly in the midst of a crisis with such high numbers of babies dying before their 1st birthday turned down money that could make a real difference. Its a simple question look many it seems didnt want to and so i mean we wanted a short conversation with anybody on the republican side to talk about yeah this part is there anyone else is willing to speak so im going to him so i dont think he. Would like to schools and even just for 5 minutes i know he chucked the day lecture years ago thanks for much just about infant mortality and health care for veterans in past 20 or eventually we did catch up with one of them republican state senator chris jordan hire Sebastian Walker from around to 0 rest mostly just on one time and see if we live in ohio you know where this is you know one of the worst states in the country. Ive got to say that im really just very briefly right get your comments on that and get it every just really briefly this is one of the worst places in the entire time to get it or. Just we just get to your position really really really quickly senator so. Just just a couple of minutes ago time. We live in a system where racism is still prevalent. And theyre stereotypes and caricature they follow certain groups of people like you knowing single black mothers that youre not doing your best youre living off the system youre driving cadillacs all this stuff they have no basis in reality. And. Youre in a. And i think each makes the other worse but i think racism is the venom in the bud of power that will say to the politicians ok to stop thinking about you or just fail ok start thinking about the people who put you in there ok helpful empathy for the op have some sympathy for them. Before leaving ohio we went to see one of the mothers weve met earlier in our time here. Has just given by not to the boys she was expecting to to adulthood shes named. Somare was full term but substantially underweight. She had several birth defects including a cleft lip and palate. Once i saw her it may mean you know like sadeq on the press but its something that. Really got over because i only see what im hearing early whether live is fixed and. She has been taking care of this area was still homeless and waiting for Public Housing to come through. But now with a new born baby to take carol. So what kind of future are you hoping for for something i definitely want her to have a better education and better education and a better group of people to a Better Society to live. I mean for the time we away his family make the best of it but when i deftly get a chance we definitely move. Somewhere. Or are. In 2009 a torture victim of the brutal arjen time the delhi regime confronted his interrogator who tortured no no no i wasnt i was in turkey has justice now been served for the atrocious crimes committed decades earlier i do talk to you were telling lies and investigation into the dark history of argentina why didnt they kill me in the end rewind interrogating a torture on aljazeera. The latest news as it breaks down the practice is just finished for the down to the end of the transitional period thats just begun with details coverage due in studies that show that around 30 percent of people in conflicts are likely to suffer from some form of Mental Illness from around the world the government here has said only essential workers will return the others not for another week at least. This is aljazeera. Hello im adrian for the get and this is that is live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes the World Health Organization warns leaders globally to step up preparations against the corona Virus Outbreak with figures out of china showing a drop in new cases for a 3rd straight day. Navigating an end to libyas civil war were live in berlin theres another round of talks are held to try to broker a truce. Sudans ousted president Obama Al Bashir appears in course over allegations of war crimes and off 4. And