After 105 hours of the Turkey-Syria earthquake, rescue teams evacuated a house in Kahramanmaras which is now destroyed. In the midst of piles of rubble, they found Aras (5) safe.
When taken to the ICU, this boy experienced hypothermia and his body temperature dropped to 28 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, another member of the Aras family died when he was found. Among them are his older sister Hiranur (7), his older brother Alp (9), and his father.
Aras’ grandfather Is Mehmet also survived the traumatic event. Even though he is 72 years old, Mehmet will look after Aras like his own son.
“The rescuers did very well to save him,” Mehmet said.
“And by the grace of God, they returned him alive,” he continued.
Aras frowned slightly when the doctor changed the bandage on his swollen left leg. Doctors say, the recovery process is fast.
Aras’ mother is also safe, but Aras hasn’t seen her since their world was destroyed. Aras’ mother was treated at another hospital in the city and is expected to recover.
The doctor who rescued Aras in the ICU, Daniel King, said they managed to save 17 patients with serious injuries who had been under the rubble for six days. Most experience hypothermia and kidney failure due to low temperatures and lack of water.
This miracle was felt not only by Aras, but also by a 65-year-old man. Samir from Syria was lifted from the rubble after experiencing six nights of freezing cold.
Doctors then saved him, but both legs had to be amputated. Medics said it had been a tiring and traumatic week.
On the other hand, pediatrician Mehmet Cihan traveled from Istanbul as soon as he could to help his colleagues in this broken city. He admits that this is a very difficult thing because many children have lost their parents.
“I don’t know. This is very difficult for me, too difficult for me,” said Cihan.
Not only in Kahramanmaras, the city of Turkoglu was also affected by this devastating earthquake. In this town, British green tents put up by British NHS doctors stand alongside Turkish tents with red tarpaulins.
British doctors are building a field hospital in the grounds of a city hospital damaged by the earthquake. As many as 80,000 victims were treated in the tents with a limited number of health workers.
General practitioner from Chichester, England, Bryony Pointon, came to Turkey as part of UK-Med. UK-Med is a frontline medical aid charity funded by the UK government.
“We are working with the Turkish doctors and nurses who are here, setting up their own tents and seeing patients but they are overwhelmed,” Pointon explained.
“After all the trauma you have people who have the usual chronic illnesses, they’re still not well, they don’t have the facilities to deal with them. So, we’re going to see those patients, as many as we can,” he continued.
Doctors and nurses from around the world are now in Turkey to help with the physical injuries. However, Turkey is being traumatized both individually and nationally.
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(avk/juice)
