Resilient in the face of tragedy
Date: October 1st 2006
Author: Dr. Ang Swee Chai
M ANY of us were only beginning to cope with the effects of the Boxing Day Asian Tsunami in 2004 the world's greatest natural disaster. Yet, barely a year later, I woke to the news of a massive earthquake in Pakistan on Saturday, Oct 8, 2005. When I turned up for work at the Royal London Hospital two days later, I realized the earthquake was the main talking point in the wards; and it remained so for days after. The earthquake had come home to London ; it was not being treated as a far-away disaster.
|
LENDING A HAND: Dr Ang took time off from work in Royal London Hospital to volunteer with Mercy Malaysia in Pakistan after the devastating earthquake there last year. Pictures courtesy of Mercy Malaysia |
The scale of the Pakistan earthquake was beginning to be understood and rumours were flying that over 80,000 had perished. And my young British surgeons in the orthopaedic department had family there. Born and educated in England , three of them had relatives in the devastated areas and they were understandably concerned. The rest of the department, of non-Pakistani origin, English and non-English alike, became just as concerned. They started raising funds and collecting medicines and food for the earthquake survivors.
As it so happened, I had lunch with Dr Jemilah Mahmood on the day of the earthquake. President of the volunteer relief group Mercy Malaysia , Dr Jemilah has been tirelessly working in many disaster areas and has earned enormous respect for her work and commitment. When the tsunami struck, Mercy Malaysia mobilised teams of volunteers immediately to neighbouring Aceh, where they quickly erected new homes and located new wells.
In the span of less than six years, this Malaysian-based new and very youthful organisation has been able to rival the commitment and scope of many bigger and richer Western NGOs. During the lunch, Dr Jemilah was already planning to despatch a fresh team to Pakistan . She flew home the next day and soon organised the despatch of 10 relief and medical missions. I asked Dr Jemilah if we could join the eleventh.
|
CARING DUO: Dr Ang with Dr Jemilah of Mercy Malaysia, the organisation she salutes for its untiring relief efforts in the quake-devastated areas of Pakistan. |
I applied for annual leave and booked plane tickets for Islamabad. The epicenter of the Pakistan earthquake was near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan Kashmir. It was 7.8 on the Richter scale and affected several hundred kilometers all round. For more than a month, after quakes some up to 6.5 Richters affected the region daily. The immediate death toll was 88,700; over a hundred thousand were wounded; and 3.5 million were made homeless.
Mercy's relief operation was concentrated mainly in Bagh, a city severely hit by the earthquake and inaccessible except by helicopter as the roads were destroyed. We got to Bagh by United Nations helicopter from Islamabad . The aerial view of the majestic mountain ranges with green pine forests was breathtaking. However, scenes of the devastation came into view as the helicopter descended. What had once been houses on the banks of the Neelum River were now heaps of rubble and the river had dried up. Week-old corpses floated down the river while the living tried to wash in the same water. Bagh was a city of ruin and rubble with 5,000 shops, two colleges and a general hospital totally flattened.
At that time, the work of Mercy was three-fold. The first was relief and logistics. Headed by Mejar Anuar Abdul Hamid, the team's task was to distribute tents, blankets and clothing for families, plus small toys and sweets for children. These were donations from the Malaysian public. Anuar worked well with the Pakistan Army, which coordinated and facilitated the relief efforts of the more than a dozen relief organizations operating in Bagh. Anuar's logistics team had previously worked in the tsunami-affected areas, Sudan , Iraq and many other areas. The second of Mercy's task was preventive medicine. There was an urgent need for vaccinations as the children had to be immunized against respiratory diseases before the winter set in. Himalayan winters are always severe and to be homeless in these situations with disease prevalent would spell death.
Mercy also set up a mental health clinic when it became clear that the stress of having lost homes and loved ones was taking its toll on even the most stoic of the survivors. The third component of Mercy's work was supporting the hospital facilities, which numbered zero since the entire Bagh District Hospital had been swallowed up by the earthquake. The Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (Pima) set up a field hospital, which was built on the site of a school buried by the earthquake. By the time we arrived, it had treated 1,800 casualties. My orthopaedic patients were very hardy people. Those with broken legs would walk - or rather hop - on their good legs to the clinic, or arrive carried on a plank or a door by their family and friends. Often they would have walked three to four days along the mountain tracks, having slept out in subzero temperature at night. They were also very patient. They would wait from early morning to evening, and would sleep on the floor while waiting to be seen and treated the next day if necessary. My patients were highly co-operative and attentive to medical instructions and they endured pain well. The little ones were also extremely brave and put up with injections and minor surgical procedures with supreme self-control!
With temperatures plunging and snow fast approaching, accommodation became a big problem for the survivors of the earthquake. It was also no longer feasible to run a field hospital scattered in tents. Relief arrived in the shape of large containers. These were wired up to generators and patients, clinics and operating facilities were slowly shifted into these containers. For many, the Pakistan earthquake is yesterday's news, but on this first anniversary of the tragedy I want to remember the resilience of the survivors. They endured a monstrous calamity and are now courageously rebuilding their lives. The other party I want to salute is Mercy Malaysia . While many NGOs flocked in the early days to provide aid after the earthquake, few stayed the course. Dr Jemilah's people are still there. At the Field Hospital now rebuilt in several containers, Mercy Malaysia volunteers have treated 9,176 patients (Oct 2005 to June 2006); the Mental Health Relief Unit has run training programmes for teachers, health workers and beneficiaries numbering 7,704; the mobile clinic has attended to 9,600 patients; and the Obstetrics and Gynaecological Services have treated 3,230 women.
Additionally, Mercy Malaysia has managed the Maternity Health Centre with two large containers and medically equipped them, and is now in the process of rebuilding the Bagh District Health Office with the local authorities. During my time in Pakistan , what probably amazed me most was the unwavering spirit of those who were so tragically affected. As an old Pakistani man said to me once the winter had come and gone, Allah is kind to us. He knows we lost our homes so he sent us an extra mild winter. And with that, they continue to worship with thanks till today.
(Dr Ang Swee Chai, a Penang-born doctor working at the Royal London Hospital, reflects on the tragedy that befell Pakistan when a massive earthquake struck on Oct 8 last year. (Published in Opinion, The Sunday Star, Oct 1 2006) |
