Next to the Kirikhan hospital another field hospital has been installed. It is the city in southern Turkey most affected by the earthquake. The Belgian medical team that opened it is helping to care for patients who cannot go to the usual one due to the damage that the building has suffered. They have an emergency room complete with X-rays, laboratory and pharmacy, and can see more than 100 patients a day.
“Today people with fractures have arrived from towns, and they have had to look for transportation, probably because they sleep in a car,” explains a nurse.
Such has been the magnitude of the catastrophe that many of those injured in the earthquake are receiving medical attention for the first time. Special attention has been paid to the care of minors, as detailed by pediatrician Els Duval: “This morning we have seen many children coming from the tent camps, from the refugee camps. These children have gone through a lot, so we try to make them have as much fun as possible in an environment like this.”
From a logistical point of view it has been a feat. All the facilities, such as the treatment plant, have been completed just in time. Bastiaan Ruys, head of logistics, assures that “water purification is necessary here because we are in a seismic zone. Many pipes are damaged, so the purity of the water from the network cannot be guaranteed.”
For starters, the Belgian team will stay here for two weeks, sleeping next to the hospital in tents. Their goal, they say, is “to bring hope and happiness.”
Source: Euronews Español
