MSF in Sri Lanka: A day among the war-wounded
source: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=3637&cat=field-news
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Some 77,000 people emerged from the former conflict zone in northern Sri Lanka and arrived in Vavuniya district in the five days following the end of the 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel group. Many of them needed urgent medical care. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have been providing medical services day and night at different locations in the district, including the hospital in Vavuniya city and at the checkpoint in Omanthai, close to the former frontline.
Treating patients at the checkpoint
Roughly 10,000 people per day have passed through the Omanthai
checkpoint since the war ended on May 16 before arriving in Vavuniya. A four-person MSF team has been working there to identify the wounded and sick who need to be transferred to the hospital, to stabilize patients for transfer, and to provide as much on-the-spot medical care as possible.
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Vavuniya hospital packed with patients
Patients are crowded into the emergency room in Vavuniya hospital, which makes moving around difficult. The hospital has 400 beds, but over 1,900 patients are presently packed into the hospital. MSF teams are supporting Ministry of Health staff to help treat the sick and wounded.
“I’ve been doing around 30 surgical procedures per day over the last few Days. Normally, I would do five,” said Dr. Matthew Deeter, one of four MSF surgeons working in Vavuniya hospital. “We sometimes work together on the same patient; one is amputating the leg and the other is amputating the arm. Or one is taking care of wounds in a foot and the others are treating chest wounds. The majority of the injuries are relatively mild, but we see lots of them on the same patients—something like 20 mild injuries for one person, caused by a bomb blast.”
Other MSF activities
The immediate priority for MSF is to treat the sick and wounded coming out
of the former war zone. In addition to providing support to Vavuniya
hospital, teams have set up post–operative care at the nearby Pompaimadhu
Ayurvedic Hospital to help with follow-up of patients. MSF has also
just set up a 100-bed field hospital with surgical capacity outside Manik
Farm, to the north of Vavuniya city, to provide emergency care to patients from surrounding IDP camps which hold approximately 160,000 people.
Treating patients at the checkpoint
Roughly 10,000 people per day have passed through the Omanthai
checkpoint since the war ended on May 16 before arriving in Vavuniya. A four-person MSF team has been working there to identify the wounded and sick who need to be transferred to the hospital, to stabilize patients for transfer, and to provide as much on-the-spot medical care as possible.
snip
Vavuniya hospital packed with patients
Patients are crowded into the emergency room in Vavuniya hospital, which makes moving around difficult. The hospital has 400 beds, but over 1,900 patients are presently packed into the hospital. MSF teams are supporting Ministry of Health staff to help treat the sick and wounded.
“I’ve been doing around 30 surgical procedures per day over the last few Days. Normally, I would do five,” said Dr. Matthew Deeter, one of four MSF surgeons working in Vavuniya hospital. “We sometimes work together on the same patient; one is amputating the leg and the other is amputating the arm. Or one is taking care of wounds in a foot and the others are treating chest wounds. The majority of the injuries are relatively mild, but we see lots of them on the same patients—something like 20 mild injuries for one person, caused by a bomb blast.”
Other MSF activities
The immediate priority for MSF is to treat the sick and wounded coming out
of the former war zone. In addition to providing support to Vavuniya
hospital, teams have set up post–operative care at the nearby Pompaimadhu
Ayurvedic Hospital to help with follow-up of patients. MSF has also
just set up a 100-bed field hospital with surgical capacity outside Manik
Farm, to the north of Vavuniya city, to provide emergency care to patients from surrounding IDP camps which hold approximately 160,000 people.
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