FOUR DAYS AFTER EARTHQUAKE THAT KILLED HUNDREDS, LOMBOK FOLK STILL AWAITING AID
KAYANGAN, INDONESIA— Four days after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed hundreds of people and displaced 270,000 more in the island of Lombok, injured survivors are still emerging from the ruined countryside, struggling to reach the doctors they desperately need.
300 aftershocks
Lombok has been hit by over 300 aftershocks, including a 5.9magnitude tremor on Thursday that brought down more buildings and injured 24 more people, authorities said.
In northern Lombok, some people leaped from their vehicles on a traffic-jammed road when the aftershock hit, while an elderly woman standing in the back of a pickup truck wailed “God is Great.”
At a Mataram hospital, about a dozen people were being treated while fearful staff moved patients outside.
At a first aid station in Kayangan that was set up under a sprawling tent because of the threat of more quakes, Dr. Mohammad Akbar said medical staff were combing the region with an ambulance to locate injured people.
By 3 p.m., he said, they had found and treated 40 people with broken bones, cuts and bruises. Many were also dehydrated.
“They’re all stuck in isolated areas with little or no transport,” Akbar said. “They’re too weak to get here on their own, so we need to go to them.”
Akbar said paramedics were treating infections caused by traumatic wounds, and they were reaching some victims too late.
One 3-year-old girl, he said, had been found with a wounded foot that had turned pale blue after being untended for three days. Doctors at another hospital had to amputate it.
Makeshift facilities
Because the nearest hospital—an hour’s drive away in Tanjung—was wrecked by the quake, Akbar’s aid station is referring patients to an Indonesian naval ship now docked at an empty port on the coast.
Navy Col. Andi Abdullah, an orthopedic surgeon stationed on the huge gray vessel, said military doctors had received 46 survivors and performed surgery on 16.
Two of the ship’s wards were filled by patients lying on stretchers with IV drips. Outside, in the hallways, family members who accompanied them sat barefoot on mats, staring blankly at the ship’s walls.
Mental wounds
“Their physical wounds are easy to treat. But their psychological wounds are much harder to heal, especially for those who lost loved ones,” Abdallah said.
“When we ask ‘what happened to you?’ most of them break down.”