Hospitals on the brink in Sumatra
The successful operation to rescue injured survivors from remote villages on Indonesia's tsunami-battered Sumatra island is creating a new problem – overflowing hospitals.
About a dozen people were lying on stretchers on the sidewalk outside the Fakina Hospital in the main city, Banda Aceh.
Inside, many rooms have no power, blood is splattered on walls and there are not enough stands for intravenous fluid bags being used to rehydrate survivors - instead they are dangling from cords strung across the ceiling.
“It’s heart breaking, we’re so glad that we were close by and could rush in to help out,” said Leslie Ansag, a medic from the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is anchored off Sumatra island.
The hospital is staffed almost entirely by foreigners – all the local doctors and nurses are either dead or hunting for missing relatives.
Officials say the overall death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis in nearly a dozen nations will exceed 150,000.
Hardest hit was Sumatra, where more than 90,000 people are confirmed dead and tens of thousands more missing.
US helicopters rescued 60 desperate and weak tsunami survivors, including children, elderly and two pregnant women on Monday. Doctors said they suffered from pneumonia, broken bones, infected wounds and tetanus.
Many appeared deeply traumatised. At least 25 were in critical condition.
Arista Idris, a spokeswoman for the International Organisation for Migration, which is helping co-ordinate the evacuation of refugees said two functioning hospitals in Banda Aceh are being swamped with survivors.
She said helicopters had rescued four people from Lamno village early today but after that, evacuations had to stop.
“The hospital in Banda Aceh is inundated,” she said.
Inside, some patients are wrapped in sarongs because there are not enough blankets to go around; 34-year-old Lukman Bakri’s broken leg is wrapped in plastic because nobody has yet been able to put it in plaster.
While there are stocks of most medical supplies, there are not always enough staff to change dressings and administer aid.
In the hospital’s former lobby, four police officers act as stand-in pharmacists, dispensing medicine to patients.
