Lifesavers
Relief for quake victims

Handling with care: Lt Adam Wallace and Maj David Ward help evacuate a man in need of immediate surgery. Photo by Cpl Neil Ruskin

By Cpl Cameron Jamieson

DESPERATELY needed medical aid is now reaching the people of the earthquake-devastated mountain region of Dhanni thanks to efforts of ADF personnel deployed on Op Pakistan Assist.

In a field on the Pakistan side of the Kashmir Line of Control, the Australians have established themselves at Camp Bradman and are treating more than 150 people a day, many of whom have trekked up to 12km across the sheer, snow-dusted mountains that dominate the landscape.

CO Op Pakistan Assist Col Andy Sims said the entire civil health infrastructure in Dhanni had collapsed because many of the health providers have been killed and the health facilities have been destroyed.

“The sanitation situation is also bad because those systems have been destroyed or so corrupted that we can’t use them,” he said.

“Likewise the roads have been badly damaged, and although the Pakistanis are doing a great job in reopening the roads there are still aftershocks which cause landslides and undoes their hard work.

“So the main challenge for us is the environment.

“We are living on a maize field, and it’s extremely dusty and the dust gets in everywhere. It’s getting colder each day and from about 10pm to 10am there’s a 30-knot wind that comes from off the snow on the mountains.

“There’s also TB, brucellosis, tetanus and a lot of gastro going around.”

Emergency specialist doctor Maj Dave Ward said the situation was bad, but the people were resilient.

“We recently had an incident where an 84-year old man was carried 6km on his bed to us,” he said.

“His family had rigged his bed with a couple of poles and carried him over the mountain on a track that was, in parts, only 30cm wide on the sheer side of the mountain.

“There were 10 people from his family to carry him – sons, nephews and grandchildren – and they took turns carrying him. It took four hours for them to get here just from the time they first came into view on our side of the mountain.”

2HSB Med Assist Pte Smiley Billings said it was an intense experience to be treating so many people.

“A lot of people come to us with stories of losing many family members,” he said. “One mother had lost three of her six children, and then there was a grandmother and her granddaughter who had lost their entire family. The brothers, sisters, father, mother, uncles and aunties were all gone,” Pte Billings said.

“It’s tough to hear, but I’m getting by all right. You just take it as it comes, one case at a time, and concentrate on the good we are doing.”

Maj Ward said despite the conditions the Op Pakistan Assist members were making a profound difference to the people of Dhanni.

“I could not be more proud of the team,” he said. “They are seeing stuff that no-one sees in Australia. Nobody sees this kind of grief and trauma. In Australia you see people who are sick and you see people die, but here there is a constant emotional barrage of people with pain in their eyes and in their stories.

“The team is doing so well and I’m really proud of them. Their morale is high because they know they’re doing good work.”