As the death toll in Turkey and Syria earthquakes crossed 25,000, rescue operations continued on the sixth straight day, with teams sent by different countries, including India, working on a war footing to help to save survivors and treat the injured.
“I am really grateful to them (Indian relief forces) because they are the first group that arrived…It was the first time that I met a group of people from India and I can’t explain my feelings. I call them ‘dost’ but I see them like brothers and sisters,” a Turkish national named Furkaan told news agency ANI.
A field hospital set up by the Indian Army in Turkey’s quake-hit Hatay province became functional on Thursday with surgical and emergency wards. On Friday, another field hospital in Iskenderun treated 106 rescued people. Meanwhile, 841 cartons of medicines, protection safety tools, and diagnostics with a weight of 6.19 tons were also sent by India to Turkey and Syria.
The 99-member team at Hatay’s field hospital includes 13 doctors, ortho and general surgeons, oral maxillofacial surgeons, community medicine specialists, logistic officers, and three medical officers.
“60 Para Field Hospital is a part of the para-brigade of the Indian Army. Immediately after reaching here, we established our hospital at a school building. We have a lab and x-ray facility here. We started the treatment immediately,” Lt Col Adarsh, second-in-command, 60 Para Field Hospital told ANI.
The Indian Army officer also informed that a 3.5-hour-long surgery was conducted on a patient at the hospital, who is currently stable. “We also had people who were pulled out of the rubble after three days. We stabilised them and are providing all help. We performed a 3.5-hour-long difficult surgery at 3.30am the day before, the patient is stable and was referred to tertiary care today in Adana,” he said.
“We received 350 patients yesterday and 200 patients since this morning (Saturday),” Lt Col Adarsh added.