Oxygen shortage 'kills some survivors'

Mon, 03 Jan 2005, 00:00 WIB | Source: JP

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.