On
a large green field five kilometres from the tsunami-devastated
coast of Aceh province, nine white tents dazzle in the bright
sunlight. Next to them, at the top of a ten metre-high pole,
a Red Cross flag flutters gently in the breeze.
This is Teunom. A place so remote that even local Red Cross
helicopter pilots have trouble finding it. But that’s
not surprising. Massive waves wiped Teunom from the map in December,
killing 4,000 people and leaving thousands more homeless.
“Teunom is washed away. There is nothing left,”
says Richard Munz, a silver haired and bearded German Red Cross
surgeon whose team has set up a basic health care unit, a sort
of improvised hospital, on the outskirts of Teunom.
“There is only one tarmac road leading from the coast
to the forest and foothills some 18 kilometres away. After that,
there is only jungle,” he adds.
Before the tsunami, Teunom had a population of 23,000. It was
a thriving fishing community where people earned a living from
the sea. But now the town is shattered.
Most of the buildings have been destroyed, including the public
health centre. The huge surge of water, mud and sand also took
the lives of 16 of its staff, including doctors and nurses.
In the days following the disaster, the surviving Indonesian
health workers toiled long hours to meet the basic needs of
the local population. But they were overwhelmed. Help from the
Red Cross was sought.
In an awesome spectacle, US Navy helicopters flew 22 sorties
from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, to get the many tonnes
of equipment, as well as a German Red Cross doctor, three nurses,
a lab technician and a paramedic, to Teunom.
Packed in metal boxes and assembled on site, the health unit,
which can meet the needs of some 20,000 people, has a maternity
unit, pharmacy, waiting room, operating theatre and laboratory.
“It was an absolute nightmare off-loading the kit. It
is the rainy season now. For the first three days it rained
non-stop,” says Richard.
Twenty-eight local staff from the public health centre, destroyed
by the tsunami, work with the German Red Cross. “There
are four midwives, four doctors as well as nine nurses plus
administrative support staff,” he explains.
Dr Nursanty, 31, is one of them. Married with two young daughters,
and living in Teunom for five years, she lost her home to the
tsunami. “My house is broken,” she whispers, head
bowed. “I live in my nurse’s house now, five kilometres
from here.”
She is desperately worried for her relatives in Banda Aceh.
“Since the disaster I have not heard from my family. I
am missing my parents in Banda. My father-in-law, my mother-in-law.
No way at all to contact them,” the doctor says tearfully.
But despite her heartache, she refuses to leave Teunom, the
town she has called home for more than five years, aboard one
of the many helicopters bringing patients as well as supplies
to the clinic.
“I have to be responsible to my people in Teunom. I do
want to go but I have to take care of my people too. I don’t
have the heart to leave like this,” Dr Nursanty says.
Since the clinic opened the Red Cross has seen up to 170 patients
a day. But the team led by Dr Munz expect more people to come
as soon as word gets round that a health centre has opened in
the area.
“I think we will have up to 200 patients a day for at
least the next three to four weeks. And I have started to do
some minor surgery mainly for infected wounds,” he says.
“We are treating people for infectious diseases, respiratory
problems, diarrhoea as well as trauma-related illnesses. Also
quite a lot of abscesses and infected wounds.”
The mornings, between nine and ten and late afternoon are the
busiest. Patients queue for basic medicines at the pharmacy.
Others sit patiently in the waiting room to be registered to
see a nurse or doctor.
At about eleven, Richard Munz pays a visit to the patients.
Kneeling besides an old man who has trouble walking, he asks,
with the help of a translator from Indonesian Red Cross, how
he is feeling.
“He has a headache and is a little dizzy,” says
Richard nodding and repeating what the translator has said.
“This will pass. He can drink and he should drink quite
a lot.”
Richard is keen to see the man try to walk. “I want him
to stand up. He needs to walk around a bit. It will get easy
if he does.”
And with that, the doctor gently takes the man’s hand
and helps him to his feet. “You will be stronger today
if you do this.” Reluctantly the man hobbles to his feet
and with the help of a crutch takes a few small steps. “He
will be fine,” adds Richard, giving the man two thumbs
up.
Later that day, two nurses from German Red Cross remove a wood
splinter from the right hand of a little girl whose wound is
badly infected. “She has had this injury for two weeks,
since the tsunami. It needs a good clean and a dressing. She
will be okay,” says Sonja Jahns, one of the nurses.
The German and Indonesian nurses as well as doctors see many
wounds like this. They work well together. The Germans provide
medical supplies and equipment as well as some staff. But the
Indonesians do most of the hands-on health work.
“They are doing a great job, as they always did. We are
here just to support them,” says Dr Munz.
It is only basic health care. But essential if nasty infections,
which could lead to further complications or even amputations,
are to be avoided.
Meanwhile, male and female ‘wards’ have been established
for in-patients. Here, German Red Cross nurse Bernd Kentsch
has made an improvised air conditioning unit to cool the patients.
Hanging from rope, brown cardboard boxes span the width of the
tent. And dangling from them, long pieces of string on which
friends and family pull to create a cooling and welcome breeze
for the bed-ridden patients.
A short walk from here across the compound, local doctors and
nurses dispense basic medicines such as painkillers and antibiotics
from the pharmacy. It is deliberately nothing sophisticated.
“In 95 per cent of cases, it is this type of medical assistance
that the local population needs,” Richard says.
But in another Red Cross tent, four patients including a young
girl lie on beds. One has malaria. Loved ones fan them with
pieces of card to keep the flies away as well as provide some
respite from the terrible heat.
“Three of them were really under the wave of the tsunami,”
explains Richard. “They swallowed quite a lot of salt
water. We’re giving them a rest here. The girl needs antibiotics
and two others have diarrhoea.”
The man with malaria came in yesterday. His situation was serious,
but he has been treated and is expected to make a full recovery.
“He can be discharged tomorrow,” assures Richard.
At dusk, huddled round the window of a tent, a large group of
locals jostle for position to catch a glimpse of two German
nurses draining the puss from the infected ear of a young man.
It is an unusual spectacle. But for some people of this shattered
town, it offers a form of entertainment. At least for now they
can forget their troubles.
And by eight in the evening the long day draws to a close. From
a distance, a thunderstorm brightens the dark sky. Not a hint
of a breeze, the Red Cross flag lifeless in the stillness of
the clear night while a thousand stars twinkle in the heavens.
The only sound, a low hum of an electric generator used to power
tungsten lamps. The basic health care unit is literally a beacon
of light – and comfort – on this humid evening in
remote Aceh.
The German Red Cross will stay in Teunom for as long as needed.
But at the end of the month Richard and his team will leave
to be replaced by other health specialists from German Red Cross.
Sitting comfortably in a deck chair, puffing on a cigarette
and satisfied with the day’s work, Richard exhales deeply.
“The situation here is getting better all the time. We’re
making progress.”
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German
Red Cross doctor Richard Munz talks to a patient at the
basic health unit in the tsunami-hit town ot Teunom (p12500)
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Nurse
Sonja Jahns, one of six members of the German Red Cross
emergency response unit deployed in Teunom (p12499)
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German
Red Cross nurse Bernd Kentsch dresses the wound of a person
hurt when the tsunami hit Aceh province (p12502)
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An
Indonesia Red Cross volunteer deals with a patient at
the health care unit's pharmacy (p12503)
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Richard
Munz said in the majority of cases, it is basic health
care that the local population requires (p12501)
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