By Jill Harding
UK Newsquest Regional Press - This is Wiltshire
Copyright 2006 NewsQuest Media Group Limited
AMESBURY, England — A paramedic who spent two weeks treating thousands of victims of the Asian earthquake is urging people to be generous in helping prevent further tragedy.
Dominic Morgan, 41, went to the devastated region of Bagh, in Kashmir, as part of a team from the international charity Humanity First.
With eight doctors, he helped to set up field hospitals, treat those suffering from horrific injuries after they had been crushed in their homes, and run an evacuation centre from where the injured could be airlifted to safety.
Working around the clock in desperate conditions in a tented hospital, Mr Morgan resuscitated many of the injured and treated appalling wounds.
“They just kept coming,” he said. “It was chaos when we got there — I thought it was the initial surge of people but they came day after day.
“Many were trapped in their homes for several days before they reached us.
“Some came by helicopter or ambulance and others were carried on beds by family members or neighbours.”
The team worked with limited medical supplies and under the constant threat of aftershocks and landslides following the earthquake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale.
“The devastation was overwhelming — nearly every house and structure was demolished,” Mr Morgan said.
“People were too scared to go back indoors, so they were just living outside.”
The father-of-four from Amesbury, who also works as a part-time firefighter, fears the approaching winter will bring terrible suffering to those who survived the disaster.
“It was already getting cold at night and, because the region is so mountainous, the winters are very harsh,” he said. “The immediate problem is lack of shelter. The earthquake was only the start of this.
“Warmth, food and medical care will have to be provided on a grand scale to save these people from another wave of deaths.”
In 12 days, the Humanity First team, which was personally thanked by the president of Pakistan, General Musharraf, saw 5,000 patients and Mr Morgan treated about 150 people a day at the evacuation centre.
“We saw people with open fractures, spinal injuries and wounds that had become infected and gangrenous because they hadn’t been treated,” he said.
“Most were crush injuries and people had become dehydrated from lying in the rubble for days.
“There is also a lot of illness because people are living squeezed together. There was very little pain relief but we got them stabilised until the next helicopter flight.”
Tragically, there were many earthquake victims the team was unable to help.
“You can’t help but be affected by having to hand back a child to a grieving father because there is nothing you can do,” Mr Morgan said.
“Or wonder what the future holds for a small boy who has lost his whole family.
“It was very hard to leave but I had to rely on my training. I feel that we all have an obligation to help after a disaster of this scale — it is what makes us human.”
To find out more about Humanity First or support its work, visit www.humanityfirst.org.uk.