The
first patient treated at the Norwegian Red Cross field hospital,
set up on Sri Lanka’s tsunami-devastated east coast, was
a woman in shock.
She had lost three of four children and her husband. Where her
house and life used to be, there is now only sand.
She is an example of the psychological impact the tsunami is
having on this population.
“For the traumatized population here, it is extremely
important in this phase to have somewhere to go with whatever
health problems they might be facing,” says surgeon Roger
Pettersen.
“Even though family bonds and social networks here seem
to be very strong, it gives great comfort for them to know that
professionals are available and that they are getting attention
and care,” he adds.
Pettersen is one of the eight Norwegian Red Cross delegates
in this Emergency Response Unit, only one of many such units
deployed by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
in the wake of the devastating tidal wave.
The Norwegian Red Cross field hospital has been set up in the
conflict affected area of Ichtilampatai, in the district Trincomalee.
It is situated four kilometres from the beach. All houses up
to one kilometre from the sea here have been wiped out.
In this area, there was little previous health infrastructure.
Surrounding the hospital are several sites where displaced and
homeless people have taken refugee.
Word of the newly arrived health facility spread quickly, and
it did not take long before there were long queues outside.
Approximately 250 people are now seen every day. Working together
with a local doctor and nurses, the Norwegian staff soon saw
that they will have more than enough to do in this area, with
infected wounds and abscesses and the ever-present danger of
waterborne diseases.
“The most severe health impact of the tsunami on the surviving
population, however, is the sorrow, anxiety and fear which has
struck hundreds of thousands of people. This is a serious disease
in itself,” says Pettersen, observing the serious faces
of the little children in the line outside.
“What they have been through and seen is horrific. At
night, people here tell us, they now sit and watch the sea,
afraid that it will rear its head again,” he adds.
Close by the field hospital, in the poor fishing village of
Verugal Muhathtuvaraam, not a house remains intact. Bricks,
rubble and pieces of roofing are all that is left.
Here alone, 67 people were carried away by the giant waves.
Fifty-seven of them have been found.
People have nothing left. When asked what they need now, they
say that they need boats and fishing equipment, but that the
most important thing to is to quickly rebuild and reequip the
school.
“That is the basis for any future we can build here again,”
says one man.
This deeply touches the Norwegian-Sri Lankan doctor Dulari J.
Edireweera. She has been living in Norway for seven years, but
is now back as a member of the Norwegian Red Cross Emergency
Response Unit.
“It is amazing to me that the school is their priority
in the extremely difficult situation that they are in now. They
are such intelligent, gentle people. We have to help them,”
she says.
|
 |
 |
|
|
Shock,
sorrow, anxiety and fear haunt the tsunami-hit population
of Sri Lanka. Here a woman and her daughter wait outside
the Norwegian Red Cross field hospital in Ichtilampatai
(p12516)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Surgeon
Roger Pettersen examines one of the first patients admitted
to the Norwegian Red Cross field hospital in Ichtilampatai
(p12515)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
It
did not take long before patients started lining up outside
the Red Cross field hospital (p12514)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Doctor
Dulari J. Ediriweera, originally from Sri Lanka, is part
of the Norwegian Red Cross team. Here she examines a boy
with possible malaria (p12513)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News
