Intensive care
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(L-R)
Captain David Innes and Major Richard Delbridge from the 1st Health
Support Battalion Sydney change the bandages on a local child
who was injured in the tsunami while her father comforts her in
the high dependency unit in Banda Aceh.
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By
Corporal Cameron Jamieson - filed 09 February
2005
The
young girl has only an hour or so to live.
The
filthy waters of the tsunami that flooded the coastal regions of Aceh
infected her lungs as she struggled to save herself from drowning.
Despite
surviving the waves, she will become another victim of the Boxing Day
disaster.
She
is resting comfortably in the intensive care unit of the Anzac Field
Hospital in Banda Aceh, where the Australian and New Zealand military
staff have given her back the dignity taken by the tsunami.
When
the time comes she is quietly transported to the local mosque for prayers
to be said in the Muslim tradition.
Unlike
more than 100,000 others, at least her name will appear on her grave.
Major
Richard Delbridge is an Army Reserve doctor assigned to the intensive
care unit.
A
veteran of ADF operations in Rwanda, East Timor and the Solomon Islands,
he is one of a hard working team that are trying to undo the damage
wrought by the worst natural disaster in living memory.
He
said the intensive care unit had a slow start, as it was hard to determine
whom to bring in.
"Considering
the types of injuries that were here, it became very difficult to pick
one from another," he said.
"Now,
we are starting to get young children come in who have breathed in the
tsunami water.
"One
of the things present in that water was amyloidosis which has a nasty
reputation of dissolving the lungs from the inside.
"Amyloidosis
is present in the rice paddies, and the tsunami picked it up along with
the sewerage and rubbish, and mixed it all together.
"The
kids were drowning, and as they were struggling to the surface they
breathed in the water, and that's what set up the process.
"We
are trying our best to treat them, but they are coming to us in a fairly
advanced state, so we are behind the eight-ball to begin with.
"People
from the other countries that are here and the non-government organisations
have contributed drugs, information, care tips and their own experiences,
and we have established a regime that can halt the disease process to
a point.
"But
sooner or later the body will either overcome the disease or succumb
to it.
"The
lungs cannot regenerate, and in Australia we would take them to surgery
and remove the offending part.
"Because
of their advanced state, we don't have that luxury - we have to rely
on antibiotics and good care."
The
sight of so much death in the streets is a reminder to Maj Delbridge
of his seven months spent with the ADF medical contingent in Rwanda
in 1995.
While
the hand of man caused the deaths in Rwanda, as opposed to the force
of nature in Indonesia, there are still certain similarities between
the two tragedies.
"There
are still people walking around and picking up bodies, putting them
in bags and taking them to a place of burial," he said.
"There
is the same stench and the same smoke from burning debris, but at least
there is no danger to life or limb from other people here.
"We
feel safe."
