NHS nurses arrive to help injured in field hospital
NHS medics have arrived in Turkey to help run a British field hospital.
It stands on the ruins of a hospital flattened by the quake in the town of Turkoglu near the Syrian border.
The town’s 80,000 inhabitants are sleeping in tents or cars with night temperatures of around -8C.
NHS nurse Melanie Johnson is leading a team of around 35 medics and staff sent by the charity UK-MED, which responds to disasters and conflicts around the world.
Melanie, 36, from Bristol, said: “Everyone coming through the door has lost somebody or is missing a loved one.
“It is really cold and a lot of what we are seeing is people with illnesses as a direct result of the conditions.
“But the local people are being so incredibly robust, so generous and friendly to us.
“I was just talking to one little girl who was practising her English with me. She had a few words, saying hello and telling me her sister’s name.
“We’ve got toys with us and bubbles and things like that. Like any children, they just want to play.”
Victims include babies with traumatic injuries – and rescuers with breathing problems caused by dust.
The charity has more than 1,000 medics and logisticians – mainly from the NHS – whose employers allow them to be deployed to disasters, disease outbreaks and war zones.
UK-MED is working alongside a larger MOD field hospital with a 24/7 operating theatre, high-dependency unit and beds for inpatient care.
Melanie, who has also worked for UK-MED in Ukraine, Bangladesh and Lebanon, said: “My mum is always concerned before I go and this time she said, ‘Can’t someone else go?’
“But if everyone said that no one would go at all.”
To donate, visit uk-med.org