Java hospitals struggle after quake
Java hospitals struggle after quake
Indonesia's damaged medical infrastructure is struggling to cope with the scale of the disaster caused by the quake.

Yogyakarta (Indonesia): Indonesia's damaged medical infrastructure is struggling to cope with the scale of the disaster caused by the earthquake that struck Central Java province on Saturday.

The main hospital in Bantul, the most heavily damaged region, was completely destroyed in the quake.

In the chaotic aftermath of the quake, the local hospital has become a living hell and all that remains is almost at breaking point.

Every inch of the floor in the hospital, is occupied by injured survivors and hundreds of patients waiting for treatment.

There is no space in the parking lot for each parking bay looks like a general ward marked by an intranvenous drip.

There are only enough beds for 700 patients yet there are more than a 1000 people spilling out into walkways, awaiting treatment.

More than 500 people need urgent operations but there are critical shortages of basic drugs.

"There is a growing shortage of basic medical supplies like antibiotics and bandages, as the hospital becomes more and more crowded," says a quake survivor who was at the hospital to get treatment.

"We were sleeping when the house collaspes and I just managed to save my wife from the falling debris," says another survivor.

Worried relatives scour the lists of those who survived and those who did not.

International aid is on the way but for those crying in pain, enduring operations without anesthics, aid cannot come soon enough.

(With Dan Rivers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia)

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