Badly injured quake victims languish in Medan

Dedy Ardiansyah, The Jakarta Post, Medan

After losing her only son, nine-year-old Dwima Ikbal Lubis, in the 8.7-magnitude quake that rocked her hometown on Nias Island on Monday, Misda Gulo has been warned that she may lose her left hand and foot.

Being treated at Dr. Pirngadi hospital in Medan with six other patients, the 35-year-old could only lie on her bed. Her head, face and body were covered with dry wounds, while her hands and legs were wrapped in bandages.

"Please tell the doctor not to amputate my hand and leg," the woman, covered in a green sarong, asked The Jakarta Post. "How can I keep going after this ..."

No relatives were at her side at the hospital, there were only nurses and other patients to offer kind words.

She said her son had died in her arms after being hit in the head by a wooden beam as their house was destroyed.

"He screamed, but when I spoke to him he didn't reply -- he was dead," Misda said as she burst into tears.

Misda and four other members of her family had been trapped in the house, calling out for help.

"There was not much else we could do. It was so dark. I could only cry and scream for help," Misda said.

Help finally arrived on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Misda was flown to Medan via a Singapore government Cinook helicopter and received treatment at Pirngadi hospital two days after the disaster.

"I can still hear my son crying out for me," said the woman, who was still waiting for the doctor's assessment of her injuries, including her broken leg and hand.

She was desperate to keep her leg and hand so she could get back to work. Previously, she had sold VCDs at Gunung Sitoli market.

Other survivors, 38-year-old Ishak Zebua and his daughter Lisna Zebua, 12, were hospitalized with back injuries after being hit by falling beams.

Ishak, a Gide district resident, said he would wait until he was fully recovered before going back to Nias to be with his wife and three daughters.

Director of Dr. Pirngadi hospital Sjahrial R. Anas, said on Friday that the hospital was treating 28 Nias quake victims, three of whom have broken bones.

"Amputation is a last resort. We hope we can just insert pins," Sjahrial said.

The hospital, he said, did not have enough beds to take all quake victims from Nias, forcing it to turn back eight victims on Friday. The eight were then referred to Adam Malik Hospital in Medan.

"It's not that we're refusing to treat them. It's just we don't have much capacity left. If we treat them on the outside, in the hospital's hallway, people will say that we're not being humane, that we're neglecting the patients," he said.

He said the hospital simply did not have much capacity because it was still treating dengue fever patients.

"At the moment, we can't take Nias quake victims. We can only take more (new) patients if there are patients who leave," he said.

He also rejected claims that the hospital was reluctant to take Nias quake victims fearing that payment would be slow, just as it was when they treated victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami.

So far, the hospital, which treated around 300 tsunami victims, had only received Rp 6 million (US$631) out of a total Rp 300 million that it should have received for treating tsunami victims.