Sunday, January 16, 2005
It is exactly 3 weeks since the Tsunami wreaked unimaginable havoc in Sri Lanka. I feel incredibly lucky that neither my husband's nor my extended families suffered any loss of life. Just listening to some of the stories of innocent lives snatched by the angry sea is truly heart-wrenching. However, amongst all the despairing stories, are also stories of amazing courage and heroism.
My sister-in-law, Dr. Kumari Navaratne, flew along the affected coastline of Sri Lanka as part of the World Bank assessment team. When they landed in the southern town of Galle, amidst the destruction they heard an incredible story of "Tsunami Heroism" within the now destroyed Maha Modera Hospital which is just across from the Galle Road that runs along the sea front in Galle. Apparently the Director of this hospital, (unfortunately I don't recall her name - I will update in a future post), a normally very quiet, unassuming lady doctor, was drawn towards a window on hearing shouts from the beach. To her horror, she witnessed a huge wave crashing upon the brick wall surrounding the hospital, which immediately collapsed upon a row of cars parked within the hospital premises. After some initial panic, the water from this wave started to recede and she had immediately run into the wards in the lower floor of the hospital, screaming out orders to immediately evacuate everyone to the upper floor. With the help of the nurses, more than 350 new mothers, soon-to-be-mothers, and newborns were rushed to the upper floor. However, as they were being moved, she started to have some doubts about the ability of the lower floor to sustain the upper floor in the event of another huge wave (specially considering the age and rather dilapitated condition of the hospital). Her eyes were drawn to a Buddhist Temple located on a hillock behind the hospital. With the help of some labourers, she quickly got a wall separating the hospital stairway from the temple broken down, and she ordered everyone to run towards the temple. After ensuring the evacuation of everyone at the hospital, she sent a hospital administrator over to the doctor's quarters to fetch her two kids and bring them to safety as well. On this fateful day, there were 3 babies in incubators, in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care unit, with 2 nurses in charge. During the evacuation, these two nurses had managed to safely disconnet the three infants from all the wires and paraphenalia and had rushed out gently carrying the first two infants. By this time almost everyone had reached the higher haven of the temple grounds. Just then, almost two and a half hours after the first wave, the second massive wave hit the hospital, ravaging through the grounds, shattering the windows and forcing itself through the lower floor of the hospital with unbelievable vengeance. The single infant, whom the nurses just couldn't retrieve in time was sadly snatched away, still within the incubator, by the power of the sea. Except for that sad, innocent casualty, more than 350 new mothers, newborns, mothers in labor and hospital staff were saved due to the prescient and prompt action by this heroic hospital director. The mothers in labor were promptly dispatched to another hospital, 5 km interior, to safely deliver their babies.
What an incredible story!!! I will try to get some photographs and more details about this unsung Tsunami heroine in a future blog!
In the meantime, volunteer Sri Lankan software engineers from the local ICT industry have joined hands to develop an open source based disaster management software system called "Sahana". It is available in SourceForge and more details can be sourced from http://www.sahana.lk. I will provide further updates on the progress of this amazing endeavour in future blogs.
My sister-in-law, Dr. Kumari Navaratne, flew along the affected coastline of Sri Lanka as part of the World Bank assessment team. When they landed in the southern town of Galle, amidst the destruction they heard an incredible story of "Tsunami Heroism" within the now destroyed Maha Modera Hospital which is just across from the Galle Road that runs along the sea front in Galle. Apparently the Director of this hospital, (unfortunately I don't recall her name - I will update in a future post), a normally very quiet, unassuming lady doctor, was drawn towards a window on hearing shouts from the beach. To her horror, she witnessed a huge wave crashing upon the brick wall surrounding the hospital, which immediately collapsed upon a row of cars parked within the hospital premises. After some initial panic, the water from this wave started to recede and she had immediately run into the wards in the lower floor of the hospital, screaming out orders to immediately evacuate everyone to the upper floor. With the help of the nurses, more than 350 new mothers, soon-to-be-mothers, and newborns were rushed to the upper floor. However, as they were being moved, she started to have some doubts about the ability of the lower floor to sustain the upper floor in the event of another huge wave (specially considering the age and rather dilapitated condition of the hospital). Her eyes were drawn to a Buddhist Temple located on a hillock behind the hospital. With the help of some labourers, she quickly got a wall separating the hospital stairway from the temple broken down, and she ordered everyone to run towards the temple. After ensuring the evacuation of everyone at the hospital, she sent a hospital administrator over to the doctor's quarters to fetch her two kids and bring them to safety as well. On this fateful day, there were 3 babies in incubators, in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care unit, with 2 nurses in charge. During the evacuation, these two nurses had managed to safely disconnet the three infants from all the wires and paraphenalia and had rushed out gently carrying the first two infants. By this time almost everyone had reached the higher haven of the temple grounds. Just then, almost two and a half hours after the first wave, the second massive wave hit the hospital, ravaging through the grounds, shattering the windows and forcing itself through the lower floor of the hospital with unbelievable vengeance. The single infant, whom the nurses just couldn't retrieve in time was sadly snatched away, still within the incubator, by the power of the sea. Except for that sad, innocent casualty, more than 350 new mothers, newborns, mothers in labor and hospital staff were saved due to the prescient and prompt action by this heroic hospital director. The mothers in labor were promptly dispatched to another hospital, 5 km interior, to safely deliver their babies.
What an incredible story!!! I will try to get some photographs and more details about this unsung Tsunami heroine in a future blog!
In the meantime, volunteer Sri Lankan software engineers from the local ICT industry have joined hands to develop an open source based disaster management software system called "Sahana". It is available in SourceForge and more details can be sourced from http://www.sahana.lk. I will provide further updates on the progress of this amazing endeavour in future blogs.
