Afghan medics struggle to cope as three earthquakes hit in six days

Hospital braces for further rush of patients as more are pulled from rubble

The Joint Operations Command has intensified its relief efforts in Afghanistan. Today, three aircraft took off carrying more than 105 tonnes of food supplies to support and assist those affected by the earthquake that struck the eastern regions of Afghanistan. Photo: WAM

Earthquake-affected people receive relief aid distributed by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in the Dewa Gul Valley of Sawkay district in Kunar province. AFP

Workers load supplies onto a truck for earthquake victims in Nurgal district, Kunar province. Reuters

A doctor tends to an injured Afghan woman outside her damaged house in Kunar province. Reuters

Paramedics reach areas affected by an earthquake in Kunar. EPA

People sit outside their damaged houses. Reuters

Afghan volunteers collect donations for victims in Jalalabad. AP

A woman and her children wait for assistance in the village of Wadir. AP

Rescue officials prepare to airlift injured people to hospital. EPA

Residents from surrounding towns and villages try to reach the quake-hit region to assist survivors. AP

The body of a girl is placed on a bed frame after being pulled from the rubble. AP

Afghan boys sit on the rubble of a house after a deadly magnitude-6 earthquake struck Afghanistan on Sunday, at Lulam village, in Nurgal district, Kunar province. Reuters

Villagers wait for assistance in the village of Wadir. AP

A boy injured during Sunday's earthquake lies in a hospital bed in Jalalabad. AP

Rescue volunteers and Taliban security officers move the injured by military helicopter following a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in the Mazar Dara village of Nurgal, north-east of Jalalabad. AFP

Earthquake damage at Mazar Dara village in Nurgal district, eastern Afghanistan. AFP

An Afghan carries the body of a relative in a shroud from a ruined house following earthquakes in the Mazar Dara village of Nurgal, eastern Afghanistan. AFP

Bearers take the deceased to a funeral ceremony after earthquakes at Mazar Dara village in Nurgal district, eastern Afghanistan. AFP

An injured boy receives hospital treatment after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. AFP

Afghans donate blood in Nangarhar. Hundreds are known to have died in the earthquake, with the death toll expected to rise. AP

Volunteers transport an injured man to hospital. AFP

Taliban soldiers and civilians carry earthquake survivors to an ambulance at an airport in Jalalabad. Reuters

Beds are crammed into hallways and staff work round the clock at Nangarhar Regional Hospital, in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad, as it struggles to treat a flood of patients injured in three devastating earthquakes that shook the country this week.

Bereaved and injured people sit in the wards and stare ahead in a daze.

The hospital has been overwhelmed since the quakes and their aftershocks hit the region over six days, to create one of Afghanistan's worst natural disasters in recent years.

The first quake struck overnight into Monday leaving more than 2,200 dead and at least 3,640 people injured. Thousands of houses were destroyed.

A second earthquake of 5.5 magnitude on Tuesday halted rescue operations, as the death toll continued to rise.

Another 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit the region on Thursday night.

“We have no home to go back to and no one to provide for us any more,” one patient, Razo, 28, tells The National as her mother sits beside her.

They are among eight women and children who survived in her household but, with no surviving male relatives, they are fearful of the future.

The hospital, which is usually only able to accommodate about 650 patients, serves Afghanistan's eastern region.

It has so helped more than 950 patients affected by the quake and carried out 180 medical procedures.

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It has been forced to cancel all non-emergency procedures as it devotes all its resources to quake victims.

Staff are under immense strain, but hospital director Fahimullah Dilawar fears it will only get worse as more aftershocks hit the region and roads are being cleared in remote rural areas, allowing more patients to reach the medical centre.

“Rescuers are just now reaching new villages and pulling people from under the rubble,” he tells The National.

Gul Rahman was among the rush of wounded Afghans who poured through the hospital's doors.

He says the late hours of Sunday are an ordeal he will never forget. He cannot quite piece together the events that took place once the ground started to shake shortly before midnight.

People visit the graves of loved ones killed in the earthquake, in Kunar. EPA

What Mr Rahman does remember is an enormous crashing sound from above and sudden pain in his head as the quake rocked his home in Nurgal, a remote mountainous area of Kunar province that had some of the highest casualty and property destruction rates, with falling mountainside boulders crushing hundreds of houses.

“The house just fell apart. Everything collapsed,” the 33-year-old says from a bed at the Nangarhar hospital, where he is being treated for head injuries.

He lost 22 members of his family to the disaster. Only three survived – his two toddler boys and a sister-in-law who suffered severe injuries. Mr Rahman has undergone neurosurgery and his sister-in-law hip surgery.

But at least they made it to the hospital. Many other Afghans have not been so lucky. Blocked roads and rugged mountain terrain have rendered the journey impossible for large numbers of wounded.

Many victims' bodies remain trapped under mud. Patients who spoke to The National at the hospital said they were saved from under rubble by neighbours.

“They dug us out with their bare hands,” Mr Rahman says.

Falling boulders coupled with the darkness of the early morning made his trip to the hospital treacherous on a largely unpaved road, he adds

Although Afghanistan's Taliban authorities sent dozens of military helicopters to aid injured people, the mountainous terrain in Kunar made landing impossible.

“The helicopter was too far away, the neighbours had to carry us on cots for two hours” along a damaged road full of rocks, debris and boulders, much of which could only be seen with the help of mobile phone lights, Mr Rahman says.

Nangarhar Regional Hospital in Jalalabad has been overwhelmed by an influx of patients. AP

At the hospital, staff are making do in extremely difficult conditions. The influx of patients and increase in surgery requirements − including a large number of procedures for head and spinal traumas − has tested the centre.

“We’ve been focusing entirely on the earthquake victims,” director Mr Dilawar says. The surge meant they had resorted to setting up dozens of beds in hallways.

The frenzy has even affected orderlies who maintain the wards.

Dil Jan has been working in the women’s post-op wards for seven years and says she had never been so busy.

As the staff member in charge of admissions to the women and children's ward, she says she feels an extra responsibility to keep patients safe.

“It’s a women’s ward, they’re all injured,” she says. “Some don’t even know where they are, so we have to make sure every woman feels safe at all times.”

But her duties have stretched the elderly woman’s stamina. “I don’t have time to eat properly. Even when I pray, I say the last few words and immediately rush back to the door,” she says.