Hospitals Overflow After Indonesian Quake
Hundreds of injured men, women and children packed the grounds of Sardjito Hospital in this historic city Saturday, stretched out on pieces of bloody cardboard as cries of agony pierced the evening air.
Several relatives read the Quran to victims as they anxiously awaited treatment. But the staff was stretched to its limits by a magnitude-6.2 earthquake that killed at least 3,000 people and injured thousands when it struck central Java island.
'We are running out of surgeons, we need help,' said Dr. Alexander, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.
He said many patients could die of internal bleeding and other injuries if they did not receive treatment quickly.
Heru Nugroho, an official at the hospital, said: 'We are in a panic to accommodate hundreds of injured people, and our emergency care is overwhelmed. We are using the parking area to provide medical treatment ... and dead bodies lie in the hospital's corridors.'
Damage could be seen across Yogyakarta, a central Indonesian city of 1 million people that is home to ancient temples and other historic landmarks.
Many people refused to re-enter their houses, fearing aftershocks. Exhausted and distraught, they slept outdoors in front yards and fields.
The quake was the worst natural disaster to hit the country since the December 2004 tsunami, which killed more than 130,000 Indonesians and devastated much of Aceh province at the western end of the country. Comparisons to that tragedy were perhaps inevitable.
On a 9-mile drive south from Yogyakarta to Bantul, the hardest-hit district on densely populated Java, pavement and bridges were cracked and crumbling and the ruins of houses lined the roads.
About 80 percent of Bantul was flattened by the quake, authorities said, and the district itself accounts for 70 percent of the casualties.
Mass graves dug by villagers lay waiting as families cried over the bodies of loved ones.
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Hospitals Overflow After Indonesian Quake -
29-05-2006, 05:05 AM
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