NYTimes.com Article: In Indian Rubble, Death Is Defied, if Not Denied

[Guest guest]

This article from NYTimes.com

has been sent to you by Jairam Seshadri jairamseshadri.

 

Ramakrishna

 

Wanted to share this account...it was heart wrenching.

 

Jairam Seshadri

jairamseshadri

 

/-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\

 

 

Let NYTimes.com Come to You

 

Sign up for one of our weekly e-mails

and the news will come directly to you.

YOUR MONEY brings you a wealth of analysis

and information about personal investing.

CIRCUITS plugs you into the latest on

personal technology. TRAVEL DISPATCH offers

you a jump on special travel deals and news.

 

http://email.nytimes.com/email/email.jsp?eta5

 

\-------------------------/

 

In Indian Rubble, Death Is Defied, if Not Denied

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/29/world/29SCEN.html

 

January 29, 2001

 

By CELIA W. DUGGER

 

BHUJ, India, Jan. 28 The army surgeon had just finished stitching a

5-year-old girl's scalp back on her head in a makeshift open-air

military hospital for earthquake victims today when two doctors

from New Delhi, who had volunteered to help, rushed up to him.

 

" We need an amputation set, " Rajesh Malhotra, an orthopedic

surgeon, said urgently. " Please help us. "

 

A grandmother had been trapped for 52 hours under a heavy beam

that had fallen on her thighs when her home collapsed in Friday's

earthquake. She was dying, the doctor said, and the only way to

extricate her was to cut off her legs.

 

Soon, soldiers brought Dr. Malhotra a small, shiny saw, still

edged with blood from the last amputation, and bunches of bandages,

syringes and other supplies.

 

He and five other physicians all from the country's finest

hospital, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi

jammed into a jeep to hurry to the woman's aid.

 

The next two hours would give a vivid testament both to the

bravery of the doctors and soldiers who were trying to rescue the

quake victims, and to the frustrations of trying to do the job

without needed equipment and resources.

 

Army doctors working at the hospital today ticked off things they

need more of: retractors, forceps, surgical instruments, splints

and oxygen cylinders. The volunteers from New Delhi would add more

items to that list once the afternoon was over.

 

The flood of patients slowed today, two days after the earthquake

that flattened parts of this city of 150,000, largely because most

of the people still buried in the rubble had died. But Mahesh

Solanki, a 29-year-old tailor, had managed to keep his mother,

Nirmala, alive.

 

She had been on the ground floor of their three-story home when it

caved in. A beam pinned her legs. She had been caught for more than

two days, lying next to her dead husband.

 

Mr. Solanki, limping himself and grieving for his father and two

brothers, who had died in the collapse, gave her water and put a

tin of biscuits within her reach. She hung on, begging him to get

her out of that dark hole, illuminated only by a faint triangle of

light from above.

 

He tried to figure out a way, but the house is in the middle of a

sea of rubble, where no crane or bulldozer could reach it to remove

the heavy slabs of concrete that hovered above his mother. Nor was

there any way to shift the beam off her legs without bringing the

house down.

 

Maj. Rajan Agarwal was searching for the living in the ruins when

he found Mr. Solanki, saw that the only hope for the man's mother

was amputation and took him to Dr. Malhotra, the orthopedic

surgeon, for help.

 

At 2 p.m. today, Dr. Malhotra and his team of doctors were

clambering over huge piles of rubble to get to the family's home.

It was only when they arrived that they realized the long odds they

faced.

 

" There's a gentleman lying by her side, " Dr. Malhotra said in a

surprised tone.

 

" That's her husband, sir, " Major Agarwal replied. " The man is

dead, sir. "

 

Not only would the doctor have to reach across her husband's body

to reach the trapped woman, but there was only about six inches of

space above her leg, giving the doctors scant room for sawing. And

he would have to operate on her while lying on his stomach.

 

The doctor also looked nervously at the huge cracks in the walls,

and thought of the strong tremors that had occurred periodically

since the earthquake.

 

" Are you sure this structure is safe? " the doctor asked.

 

" It

hasn't moved since this morning, " the major answered.

 

Dr. Malhotra did not seem reassured. He began to wonder out loud

about whether to go forward. He worried about the woman's position,

he worried about performing the surgery lying down, he worried

about the house falling down on them.

 

The major reminded him, " Without this, she will die, sir. "

 

" I

wouldn't like her to die in my own hands, but I'm agreeing to it

only because. . . . " the doctor replied, his voice trailing off.

 

So the job began. The doctors wanted a battery-operated electric

saw, but there wasn't one handy. They called for a torch to light

the dark space, and were handed a tiny flashlight.

 

The saw, it turned out, was dull. Time was of the essence, since

the cutting had begun. So the doctors called out to the soldiers to

bring a knife. The men brought back a long machete, with a curved

blade that looked not only dull but dirty. The doctors poured a

germicide on it, and passed it in to Dr. Malhotra.

 

That, too, wasn't sharp enough.

 

" Does anybody have a small

hunting knife? " the doctor cried out.

 

Instead, the soldiers brought another machete with a shorter

blade. Dr. Malhotra tried that too.

 

Finally, more than an hour after the surgery began, her legs were

off. The doctors lifted her up and out of the house, and laid her

on a stretcher.

 

In a mournful tone, one of the young residents informed Dr.

Malhotra, " She's not breathing, sir. "

 

Dr. Malhotra, sweaty and blood- splattered, seemed to sink in on

himself.

 

" I told her son she might die, but I was not prepared for it, " he

said in the jeep on the way back. As the ride neared its end, he

said, " A wiser man would have said no, and let her die there. "

 

But her son felt differently. He shook the doctor's hand, and told

him he was grateful to him for trying to save his mother.

 

Back at the military hospital, he wept over her body. When he said

goodbye to Major Agarwal, who had done his best to save his mother,

Mr. Solanki touched his forehead to the soldier's hands in thanks.

 

 

 

 

The New York Times on the Web

http://www.nytimes.com

 

/--------------------------------\

 

 

Visit NYTimes.com for complete access to the

most authoritative news coverage on the Web,

updated throughout the day.

 

Become a member today! It's free!

 

http://www.nytimes.com?eta

 

 

\--------------------------------/

 

HOW TO ADVERTISE

 

For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters

or other creative advertising opportunities with The

New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson

Racer at alyson or visit our online media

kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

 

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to

help.

 

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company