Calgary nurse sees devastation and humanity in Nepal
Posted Jun 5, 2015 8:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For Sarah Mutch, a Calgary nurse, the reality of Nepal hit her quickly.
“You feel sorry for them when you see them on TV, but when you’re there and you can see it, it’s hard,” she told City News. “I’ve never been in an earthquake situation before, so things go through your mind about how stable is it, is it going to be another earthquake, what am I going to see?” Mutch said.
The Canadian Red Cross delegate left for the country on April 27th, just a couple days after the quake hit, along with doctors and other medical staff from China and the Philippines for a four-week mission.
Nearly 9,000 people died in the earthquake and tens of thousands more were injured or displaced.
Their job was to head to Dhunche and set up a field hospital to replace the facility which had already been heavily damaged. The devastation was clear even before reaching their site.
As Mutch travelled, she saw people living in tents and even tarps on the side of the road, tons of children out of school with the challenge of getting them back in the classroom before monsoon season starts.
Upon her team’s arrival, they encountered electricity, water and sewage problems.
“It was a complete devastation out there for people in the town, people in the outlying areas, it was really sad to see all the children can’t go to school,” she said. “When we first got there, some of the buildings of the hold hospital were still standing, so some of them had to be taken down and then they had to all be cleared off to make way for the new hospital.”
Despite the challenges, they were able to make the hospital completely operational with the help of local authorities.
“They’ve seen 1,400 patients so far,” she said. “They have a surgical capacity there, so now they can do some C-sections and that wasn’t on their radar before, so hopefully that’s going to help with the maternal mortality,” she said. “It’s important for their well-being, it’s important for their self-confidence, it’s important all around.”
Mutch said she was also part of the team that helped the deliver the first baby boy at the facility.
“It was a nice, happy thing to happen in amongst all that devastation, it was great,” she said.
Back in Calgary, Mutch said she would like to return to the country.
“There are a lot of people who are still homeless that need to be housed, there’s a lot of people who live out in the hills that still need help,” she said. “I think it’ll be an ongoing project and hopefully it’ll be something that people won’t forget about.”
