Materia Medica Malaysiana

Mercy team stretched to the limit in Aceh

BANDA ACEH: When Mercy Malaysia’s doctors arrived in this stricken town on Dec 28, two days after the earthquake and tsunami disaster, they found the entrance of the military hospital strewn with some 480 bodies.
“The smell was really bad. And there were so many patients needing help. So, the team called back immediately and said they couldn’t cope and that the situation was really bad,” said Mercy Malaysia president Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood.
So, a second team was despatched. A third team will be coming soon, followed by a psychological intervention unit.
Dr Jemilah, who had been on missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Kosovo, Maluku, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Darfur and the Nias island said what she saw here was by far “the worst” catastrophe.
All doctors, nurses, staff and patients of the four main hospitals here had perished in the tragedy and equipment destroyed.
She said the only functioning hospital was the military hospital and even that did not have a blood bank or an x-ray unit.
“It’s only a third-level district hospital meant for army personnel. It was not equipped for disasters. What we need now are emergency blood banks and x-ray units,” she said when met at the hospital where Mercy is operating its mission.
She said while the nine-man Mercy team was working up to 4am every day to cope with the inflow of patients, they could have done better if they had enough antibiotics and oxygen.
The Mercy team – the first international non-governmental organisation to arrive in Aceh – came with 300kgs of medical supplies.
“All this finished within two days,” she said, adding that they were getting more supplies.