Peshawar’s hospital staff face war-like situation

[TaimiKhan]

Peshawar’s hospital staff face war-like situation
Thursday, 19 Nov, 2009



PESHAWAR: Doctors and nurses battle round the clock to save lives in Pakistan’s war against the Taliban, threatened with death and struggling to treat horrific injuries at a colonial-era hospital.

‘We’re under severe psychological pressure. How long will we get bodies of men, women and children, severed limbs, severed heads?’ said Sajida Nasreen, catching her breath on duty at the main hospital in the northwest city of Peshawar.

‘A dead 11-year-old was brought in, drenched in blood but his shoes shining with polish. His father came, lifted the child onto his lap, kissed him and said: ‘I sent you to school, not to die’.

‘For the first time in my career, I wept bitterly,’ said the nurse, who at 53 thought she had seen everything until Al-Qaeda-linked attacks got worse and worse, killing 2,540 people in Pakistan over 29 months.

‘Those responsible should see the situation in the hospital to understand what these blasts do,’ she added.

Lady Reading Hospital, or LRH as it is known among the 2.5 million residents of Peshawar, was founded in 1924 when Lord Reading was viceroy of India and is now one of Pakistan’s largest teaching hospitals.

On a visit to the area, his wife fell off a horse and suffered an injury, only to find proper treatment was unavailable locally. In England, she collected donations from British philanthropists and set up a hospital that ultimately took her name.

But the romance of its beginnings has vanished under the carnage witnessed in Peshawar and the surrounding North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where Taliban bombings and military offensives have been concentrated.

‘We have dealt with 49 blasts... 2,200 injured and 576 bodies in bombings,’ Doctor Ataullah Arif, surgeon in charge of the emergency ward, told AFP.

Tactics are changing. Bombings of crowded markets are beginning to maximise civilian casualties. Attacks on the army, police and paramilitary to avenge the government’s alliance in the US-led ‘war on terror’ are becoming more brazen.

‘Victims are pouring in almost daily now. We start our day with prayers that may Allah spare us from tragedy,’ said Arif.

‘We have been working under severe stress over the past two months. I can’t explain the situation in words.

‘Very often there are bodies and blood, as rows of stretchers start flowing amid shouts and screams,’ he said.

The 1,543 beds are woefully inadequate and the hospital is struggling to overcome dire shortages to build a 500-bed emergency ward.

‘In an emergency, sometimes we put two wounded on one bed and people with lesser injuries are treated on the floor or in wheelchairs,’ said Arif.

There are fears that a suicide bomber could strike the hospital, a soft target.

There are eight gates into the 30-acre compound guarded by just seven policemen, Arif says.

‘Our staff are constantly in danger. They are under severe threat from militants.We have received calls from militants, warning the staff ‘you are treating those who are our target. We will not spare you.’’

LRH chief executive, Doctor Abdul Hameed Afridi, says shortage of space is so acute that the basement was converted into a mortuary last year.

‘We face great difficulty in coping with the situation. We badly need funds, equipment and trained staff. In such a big hospital, we have just one CT scan machine and no MRI facility,’ said Afridi.

‘We need life saving drugs. LRH bears the pressure not only from NWFP but from Afghanistan. When there is a big disaster in Afghanistan casualties are also sent to Peshawar,’ he said.

Aged 25, Bibi Zakia is one of LRH’s younger nurses but has grown old quickly in the face of horror.

‘It is a human crisis. It’s a huge burden. We have to treat not only the victims, but also take care of their relatives,’ she said.

‘We are tired but I’m proud to be a nurse and I think I’m better than millions of others because I’m serving humanity.’But even hardened nurses sometimes find it difficult to cope with the magnitude of the suffering.

One particular occasion was a car bomb on October 28 that killed 118 people in Peshawar’s Meena market, frequented by women and children, in the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan for two years.

‘I remember two charred bodies of children. They looked like roast chickens. It was horrible. I couldn’t control myself. Pain and anguish filled my body and I screamed and I shouted: what was their crime?’


DAWN.COM | Metropolitan | Peshawar?s hospital staff face war-like situation

 

[Red Dwarf]

Its sad to see innocent people die for the cause, that they don't even know.

 

[iPhone]

Unbelievable. Shocking. The courage of such people, hospital staff and first medical responders on the scene, is astounding. Seeing mutilated bodies on almost daily basis and tending to injured and treating them, the kind of profound personal experience it becomes is just mind blowing.

Today there were two blasts and both where police was targeted. It's just amazing that after such beating these guys are going to work everyday and performing their duty knowing fully they are a big target, even if they spot the bomber and try to stop him, chances are they'll be killed. Knowing fully this, they go and put on their uniform and go about their job duties, what courage man. Hats off to these unsung heroes of war. Your courage and bravery is unmatched. May you have a safe day at work, everyday, and return home to your families at the end of your shift well and in peace. Ameen.

 

[Jatt Boy]

2,540 Shocking, RIP !

 

[iPhone]

an excellent piece on the courage and bravery of the police men who gave their lives today.


PESHAWAR: Fazal Raheem, the cop who stopped a suicide bomber at the entrance of the Judicial on Thursday, is no longer in this world, but he has kept his words.

He used to tell the court officials that no bomber could dare to enter the complex as long as he remains at the entrance. Perhaps he had some intuition about what might happen to him.

Same is the case with ASI Khaista Gul, who used to tell the people that security at the entrance is incomplete without Fazal Raheem.

Due to same reason Gul, who was looking after the overall security of the complex, was always reluctant to allow him leave for visiting his home and family.

Gul is also among the 19 people killed in the explosion which devastated the Complex situated on the Khyber Road.

Both of them sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. Despite knowing very well the threat related to their duty and that of scores of other cops present there, they never deterred from performing their routine jobs.

Those who frequently visit the Judicial Complex are aware how they used to search the vehicles entering the premises and frisk the hundreds of individuals daily visiting this premises.

‘We often joked with Fazal Raheem to perform his duty properly and he used to tell us that the bomber will first pass through him and then enter the premises,’ said Yousaf Khan, a court official.

He said that Raheem was a simple person known for performing his duty with honesty and dedication and was never scared that he might fell victim to any act of terrorism.

Another hero of the Thursday bombing is Sarwar Khan, an old office assistant of the Peshawar District Bar Association, who was also deputed at the main entrance of the complex on the Khyber Road.

Commonly known as Sarwar Chacha by the lawyers, he was often seen wielding stick and issuing directives to the visitors. He has also vanished in the blast.

‘Sarwar Chacha was a familiar face in the courts. That was the reason that the Bar Association deputed him at the entrance for identifying the lawyers so as to avoid inconvenience to them,’ said Mahmood Alam Advocate.

Witnesses said that the suspected bomber approached the main entrance while boarding a cab and when it was not allowed to enter, he disembarked from it. Fazal Raheem stopped him but he was reluctant to allow body search.

‘Suspecting the intentions of the bomber, he forthwith caught hold of him after which we heard a deafening sound and plume of smoke and dust rising from the entrance,’ said Niaz Mohammad Advocate, whose seat is nearby the entrance.

He also claimed that the bomber was wearing a black waistcoat apparently to hoodwink security officials as normally lawyers are attired in same dress.

Despite security concerns, Peshawar High Court’s Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan visited the Judicial Complex and inspected the place of occurrence.

He was also accompanied by Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, Justice Pir Liaqat and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel.

Executive member of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Noor Alam Khan, whose vehicle was carrying marks of splinters from the blast, said that after a loud explosion he saw some of the injured and bodies lying on his car’s bonnet.

There was absolute mayhem as everyone in the complex and outside started running for their lives in sheer panic. The scene was strewn with blood, human flesh, bodies and injured persons.

Journalists performing their routine duty in the courts were mostly safe but one of them, Alamzeb Khan, working with Urdu Daily Pakistan, received injuries. However, he is stated to be in stable condition.

The blast devastated the entrance and makeshift cabins and stalls on the premises of the Judicial Complex housing the courts of accountability, additional district and sessions judges, civil judges and judicial magistrates.

Scores of lawyers reached the spot and helped in shifting the bodies and injured persons to the Lady Reading Hospital.

Large number of them also turned up at the hospital for donating blood. This was the sixth bombing incident in the current month in Peshawar.
DAWN.COM | Metropolitan | The brave men who saved many lives

 

[waraich66]

Pakitan is soil of brave and patriotic people , no one can destroy or capture our nation .