Oxygen shortage 'kills some survivors'

The Jakarta Post, Lhokseumawe/Banda Aceh/Jakarta

Although massive operations to distribute aid for victims trapped alive continued on Sunday in Aceh and North Sumatra, several survivors were reported to have died from belated medical help.

The last survivor to die on Sunday was Usman Bin, 47, who was treated at Cut Meutia Hospital in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, medical staff said.

Nurses said the hospital could not save Usman, a resident of Murah Melia district, because it ran out of oxygen tanks.

"Usman badly needed oxygen because he suffered from respiratory complications after inhaling too much mud when he was swept away by a tsunami," a nurse told The Jakarta Post.

Data from the hospital revealed that at least 6 percent of 167 tsunami victims treated there had died due to lack of medical equipment and supplies.

Dr. Fitria of Cut Meutia Hospital confirmed that the shortage of oxygen tanks had partly contributed to the deaths of survivors from respiratory problems.

In the northern town of Bireuen, officials warned that as many as 18,000 refugees faced disease and starvation unless aid arrived soon.

"The government has been too slow in distributing aid," Riswan Ali, an acting refugee coordinator in Bireuen, told AP. "We need water. Our children are sick, they need food and medicine. Please help us. We will die here."

Meanwhile, the massive international relief effort for survivors gained momentum as scores of foreign naval vessels arrived, bringing food, medicines and other emergency supplies.

Seahawk helicopters from a U.S. aircraft carrier off the Acehnese coast speeded supplies to decimated coastal towns while five American doctors flew in from the U.S.S. Shoup destroyer to assess need on the ground.

In addition, four Indonesian Navy frigates loaded with relief supplies arrived off Meulaboh, one of the areas worst hit by the disaster.

Capt. Larry Burt, commander of a U.S. Navy helicopter relief mission launched from the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, said flights taking aid would now also bring back people stranded in inaccessible areas.

"We are starting that now; we have got to get them out of there," he told AFP.

The U.S. Navy began airlifting food to remote coastal areas on Saturday, with 17 Seahawk helicopters working to alleviate the load of aid materials piling up at the airport in Banda Aceh.

Airstrips in the region have been swamped, forcing relief efforts to turn to what Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, called "a new and alternative way" of bringing in aid, largely through the use of helicopters.

The First Health Support Battalion, which left Sydney's Richmond RAAF base aboard a Boeing 707, was expected to arrive in Aceh late on Sunday after refueling in the northern Australian port of Darwin.

The team will spend three months in Aceh, bringing urgently needed relief through 55 hospital beds and 90 medical workers.

However, hopes of finding more survivors among the rubble was very slim on Sunday, one week after a powerful earthquake and tsunami crushed Aceh and North Sumatra, as the death toll surged to 82,000 with the possibility of climbing even further.

"There is very little chance of finding survivors after seven days. We are about to halt search-and-rescue operations," Lamsar Sipahutar, head of the Indonesian search and rescue team, said as quoted by AP.

The last known person to be found alive was Ichsan Azmil, who was rescued on Friday. Indonesian Red Cross workers heard Ichsan's cries for help from the ruins of a house in Banda Aceh that was largely leveled.

Meanwhile, the Indonesia Military's disaster mitigation unit said it would press ahead with searching for survivors, although hopes had dimmed after seven days.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab vowed on Sunday that rescuers would try hard to improve their recovery capacity from the current 4,000 corpses per day to 6,000 a day.

Life was slowly returning to a relative norm in several parts of Aceh, with telecommunications restored partially to Meulaboh after a week of isolation.

Some traditional markets, like those in Ulee Kareung and Ketapang, sold only vegetables, meat and salt, not rice or other staple foods, Antara reported.

In Banda Aceh, some 300 victims gathered at the province's great Baiturrahman Mosque for the first prayer since the disaster.

Despite the arrival of humanitarian aid, those Acehnese not affected by the disaster found it hard to procure staple food.

"Money is worthless here, as there are no food supplies," Teuku Anidar, who lives in a Banda Aceh suburb, said on Sunday.

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