The Ceylon News

The Vavuniya Hospital
Dear family and friends,
I did not want to overload the trip report because some people found my Tsunami reports too long. I thought it best to comment on the situation in the hospital in a separate report.
This is the most crowded hospital I have ever seen. There were people everywhere. There were people on either side of all the open corridors that connect the buildings. Some were in the drains. I was told that patients discharged do not leave because they found that life in the hospital was better than in the camps. I had no time to ask who fed them or where they got their food from. One wonders what will happen if it rains.
The anti-natal ward was full but most of the women seemed to have a bed each. But the situation in the post-natal ward was different. There were 3 babies to a bed. The mothers knelt on the floor beside the babies. There were a couple of women who were after caesarean operations. I do hope that they had beds. Movement in the wards was very restricted and there was no opportunity to talk to the women at length. One woman was expecting twins. I do hope she has people to help her. Some of the women when asked which camp they were from said that they had no camp and had come to the hospital from the ship. One woman had no one from her family with her. They were all still in the no-fire-zone. One woman was walking up and down the corridor with a wheezing baby wrapped up in a towel.
In the post natal ward mothers crowded round us anxious to get a pack. One little girl about 7 years old wormed her way through the crowd and told me that her mother was in the ICU. I had no way of knowing if there was a baby with the mother. This little girl held her ground for quite a while till at last I found a nurse who could confirm that her mother was with the baby in the baby ICU. We gave her a pack and she ran off like a little rabbit clutching the pack in the basin and the baby net. What a lucky mother to have such a smart daughter.
In the anti-natal ward there were two sisters sleeping under a bed. They were 14 and 15 years old and 4 and 5 months pregnant. It was not for me to question why and wherefore. Later I was told that many young girls used pregnancy as a way of avoiding recruitment into the Tiger army.
Mothers with older children begged for packets of milk. As I stated in the first report I would have started a riot if I had started giving packets of milk powder in the corridor. Some begged for money and one wanted a sandwich. Others crowded round with a variety of requests. One feels so hopeless and heartless in situations like this.
The hospital staff members were calm and efficient. They seemed to be able to take the crowded wards in their stride. They helped us to identify the needy patients. The wards and the surrounding areas were clean but we were not game to check the toilets. Given how over crowded this hospital is it is a marvel they can maintain order and cleanliness.
That all for now until next time.
myrna setunga