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This is an archive article published on January 28, 2001

Hospitals struggle to cope with the tragedy

AHMEDABAD, JAN 27: "Where is my brother and his family?'' a harried, middle-aged woman, eyes swollen from crying, arrived and asked t...

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AHMEDABAD, JAN 27: "Where is my brother and his family?” a harried, middle-aged woman, eyes swollen from crying, arrived and asked two volunteers at the V S General Hospital. The volunteers go through the list of casualties and her brother and his wife were dead. The woman breaks down and her shrieks rent the air. Relatives try to calm her down, take her to a lounge where 20-odd bodies were lying, covered in blood-spattered bed-sheets.

The city hospitals were overflowing with the dead and injured, within a few hours of the earthquake hitting the State on Friday morning. Screeching sirens of ambulances and wails of the bereaved relatives pierced the sombre air at the V S, even as the medical staff struggled to cope with the tragedy.

Every time a vehicle brought the victims, volunteers rushed with blood-spattered stretchers to haul the injured into the wards. More often than not, the injured were pronounced dead by the doctors. Those lucky to be still alive were taken away for treatment.

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At V S hospital, five additional wards were vacated to make way for the casualties. As bodies arrived by piles, they were put in a gallery adjacent to the casualty ward, covered with blood-stained bed-sheets. The flow was so heavy, that the bodies were given away with very little formality; there was no time for it.

The hospital compounds were dotted with the patients, lying on beds and stretcher, and those whose conditions was not so bad even on the ground. Many sat on the ground, with plastered legs or arms, and holding IV fluid bottles in one hand. At New Civil Hospital, Shardaben Municipal Hospital, and L G Municipal Hospital, the lawns were filled with the patients.

Hundreds of volunteers helped in transfer of patients from ambulances to casualty ward and then to the X-ray room. At the V S and Civil hospitals, the volunteers had put up loudspeakers and help desks to guide the relatives of patients.

The loud-speakers kept making announcements, informing blood donors where, which blood group was required. Ramesh Patel, a volunteer who was overseeing work at the Civil Hospital, said that they arranged for the food for the patients, their relatives and the doctors on duty. He said they were also buying drugs for the poor patients.

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Although it was a holiday, the doctors reported for duty without wasting time. Civil Hospital Superintendent Anil Chadha said that all doctors had come on their own for duty. At Shardaben hospital, all consultants, residents, nurses and nursing students had been pressed into service. The tragedy was too big, but they were doing their best, in spite of all difficulties.

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