ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: Scores of earthquake-affected injured children facing amputation, if at all survive, have a bleak future ahead with the state having few facilities for their rehabilitation and society having nothing to offer but indignity and disrespect.

During a brief trip to affected areas and nearby medical facilities, a number of unattended schoolchildren were seen, who had already undergone or were facing amputation because of gangerine.

“Of every five child patients, there is one blown up gangerine case with no other option but to amputate the affected part,” Dr Adeel, resident surgeon at the Ayub Medical Complex in Abbotabad, told Dawn.

Ayub Medical Complex is the main medical facility nearest to the disaster-hit areas, be it Balakot, Mansehra, Ghari Habibbullah or the AJK capital, Muzaffarabad.

“So far, we have received 5,000 patients, most of them women and children. The hospital is running at full capacity with tents erected all around on its premises,” the doctor said.

With every passing day, the number of patients coming to the hospital is increasing, which, as of last couple of days, stands at 600 per day, he said.

With rescue efforts picking up, more patients are coming to the hospital, he added.

Schoolchildren were worst affected in this tragedy, as they were in their classrooms when the quake struck at 8:52am, the doctor said. It is chaos here at the Ayub Medical Complex, and aftershocks jolting the area on regular intervals have made the already ‘impossible task’ of attending to such a huge number of patients more difficult, he said.

When asked to provide the exact number of child patients they had received so far, he said: “Every day were try to centralize the data, but another aftershock leaves us in a total mess”.

Explaining the cases of gangerine, he said there were five stages and bones were affected during the third, after which chances of recovery became thin, requiring amputation.

“After thorough investigation and consultation with colleagues, and getting permission from patients’ attendants, amputation is performed. In case of patients having no attendants or relatives, the doctor concerned signs the consent form,” he said while responding to a question.

During the first couple of days, wounds were fresh and curable, however with every passing day, chances of survival, especially for child patients, are becoming lesser, said Dr Adeel, who had not slept for the last 36 hours.

This reporter also met two child patients there, who were unaccompanied and were being looked after by volunteers.

Ghulam Sarwar, 13, having stitches on his forehand, was anxiously watching other patients accompanied by their attendants. But he did not know that there was no one left in his family to come and attend him. On inquiry, this reporter came to know that of seven family members, only Sarwar and his younger brother escaped the tragedy.

He was lying on his bed with a broken leg. He said he was a student of class six and lived in Balakot city. He was in his classroom when the deadly earthquake hit the area and changed his whole life.

Gulnaz, 7, was crying with pain as doctors had just amputated her left leg. She was being carried for X-ray of her right leg with signs of femur bone fracture. She was also one of the many unfortunate children who had lost their families and were now without any attendant.

Ashfaq Sadiq, a software engineer by profession, was attending Gulnaz as a volunteer. He could hardly keep himself from crying on seeing the plight of the child who was calling for her parents.

Mr Sadiq, who had been associated with Save the Children, an NGO, expressed his apprehensions that these unattended children might fall into wrong hands. “We are living in such a chaotic situation that anybody could come and claim them as their children,” he said. Presently, the hospital is not maintaining any kind of record of these children and they are at the mercy of volunteers etc., he added.

Dr Mazhar at the district headquarter hospital, Haripur, confirmed that to this date, he had performed amputation on 150 children. “They come in such a bad condition that to save their lives, we have to cut their affected body parts,” he said.

Talking to Dawn, Prof Zaheer Abbasi of Children Hospital in Islamabad, said requests were pouring in for children’s custody.

Referring to a placard placed at the hospital’s entrance, inscribed with “children are not available for adoption”, Dr Abbassi said not a single child would be handed over to any family.

“So far we have received 500 child patients with serious injuries and the hospital is running at full capacity. At present, the hospital has four children without any guardian and we are keeping a close look at them,” he said.

Afshan Tehseen, programme officer Child Protection and Citizenship, at Save the Children, told this reporter that “in a society where disability is looked down upon within families, how people will adopt children with disabilities”.

“We have taken a strong exception to the media campaign for children’s adoption and have written to the government as it is too early for this,” she said.

Responding to a question, she said due to shortage of resources, there were no significant efforts for children’s protection in the disaster-hit areas.

A well-placed source in the federal ministry of social welfare told Dawn that the government was running a few facilities for disabled children’s rehabilitation.