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| October 23, 2005 | Sunday | Ramzan 18, 1426 |
Lack of facilities hamper treatment
FAISALABAD, Oct 22: There are a number of areas in Azad Kashmir where no relief and rescue team has reached. This was stated by the head of a 12-member medical team, neurosurgeon Dr Akmal Husain of the Punjab Medical College, here on Saturday after return from Muzaffarabad.
He said there were thousands of injured people who needed immediate medical assistance, food and shelter. He feared that the death toll could go up if no step was taken on war-footing.
Dr Akmal said the team carried with it medicines and surgical equipment worth Rs2.5 million provided by principal Prof Rehan and it worked along an Army Medical Corps team headed by Maj Gondal.
He said his team was sent to Punjkot Valley which was situated near the LoC, around 56 kilometres from Muzaffarabad, by helicopter as the road was completely broken and around 30,000 people were cut off from the rest of the world. No other medical or rescue team was sent to this remote Valley, he claimed.
He said his team set up a medical camp and treated 100 people the day it landed there and performed 35 surgeries.
“Next morning, the injured starting reaching at the camp on shoulders, cots and wooden stretchers from all over thevalley. The team started work and it continued till the darkness.
There was no light, no electricity, no food and no water at all. During five days of our stay there, we treated nearly 1,500 injured and operated upon 350 people.
Many patients were operated upon more than once because of severe infection as five days had already passed and no treatment was given to them,” he observed.
Dr Akmal said heavy rain and snowfall on the peaks worsened the conditions. The rain continued for 11 hours and they had to stop work. “There were many patients who could not be carried to our facility so some of the members of team went to their places to attend them.”
He said the team members faced many landslides and there were aftershocks. The people, although traumatized, shelterless and without food, were very courageous.
He estimated that of around 30,000 people, nearly 5,000 suffered injuries. The elders of the area said they had buried more than 2,000 bodies and still many were under the rubble.
The other members of the team are; Assistant Prof Dr Imtiaz Aleem, Dr Nazim, Dr Irfan, Dr Shafiq and eye surgeon Dr Qaisar Hanif.
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