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| October 16, 2005 | Sunday | Ramzan 11, 1426 |
Quake victims in Peshawar hospitals call for help
PESHAWAR, Oct 15: Victims of the Oct 8 earthquake, who are admitted to hospitals here, are facing multiple problems. “We were at school, when the quake hit. We all were running for shelter, but the roof caved in. My left foot got stuck in the debris,” said, 10-year-old Sadia Mehboob, a student of class 6th at Hassa village, Balakot.
Sadia, who was rescued by villagers after 9 hours, said that only three of her classmates had survived.
“We have been here for the last three days and have not been getting proper food nor aid. My brother has come from Karachi, who is paying for my treatment,” said 13-year-old Qamru Nisa, lying on the next bed with her cousin Sadia, with a fractured left hip joint.
She said that sometime she get food from the hospital but that was too little and of low quality. She said that she had not slept, because of the pain and lack of proper food at the hospital.
Equally disturbed was Safeena Asghar, a school teacher, who lost her 3-year-old son, Anan Asghar, in Garlat village of Balakot district, but said that she was lucky to have had a daughter, Roman Asghar, who survived and was sharing the same bed with her.
Safeena said that seven of her family members had died and their shops and houses had been devastated by the quake.
“We don’t know where to go. We have no place, no shelter left,” she said, while consoling her weeping daughter.
She said that thousands of people could have been saved had the rescue work been launched in time. “A few villagers, who had survived, tried hard and pulled us out of the debris after 16 long hours,” she said.
Anum Ashraf, a first-year student of the Sardar Bahadar Ali Khan College, Rawalakot, said that she was in her class when the quake hit the area. “My friend Rabia died in front of me, while other students were crying for help,” she said.
Angered by the ill-treatment of the government, she is confused because her house had collapsed and relatives died and where would she go when discharged from the hospital.
Ms Chand, 30, of Balakot, who is admitted for treatment of her fractured legs, said that she had lost two sisters while her husband was missing.
“We were at home. My husband ran outside after the quake and ran back to the room to save our son, but did not come out,” she said.
There were cries all around, the people trapped under the rubble of their houses were pleading for help, she said.
Rabia, who shifted to Balakot from Peshawar some five months ago, said that she lost her nine-month-old daughter. “I and my son were saved by neighbours after 9 hours,” she said.
Lady Reading Hospital chief executive Dr Abdus Samad said: “We have received 250 patients, 40 per cent of them children. We have not received any special assistance from the government, but are providing treatment and food from our own resources.”
The patients belonged to Balakot, Mansehra and Muzaffarabad, he said, adding that the patients were received at the specially set up 100-bed emergency ward run by trauma specialists from where they were shifted to other wards.
At present, they have been kept at the orthopaedic and neurosurgical units, but “we are trying to vacate the 80-bed skin wards for the quake victims”.
The situation in the Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex was also not very different.
“We are paying for the drugs and food from our own pockets,” said Zafar Shah at the Khyber Teaching Hospital.
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