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Leeds surgeon's mission to quake victims
A Leeds surgeon is using his skills to save lives in disaster stricken Indonesia.
Waseem Riaz Saeed is a consultant plastic surgeon at the Leeds Nuffield Hospital and an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Leeds Medical School.
He specializes in the reconstruction of limbs, particularly childrens' hand surgery.
But this week the 46-year-old swapped the relative comfort of his Leeds operating theatre for a stark military hospital in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra.
He was flown out by the medical aid agency Merlin NGO UK.
The father-of-four told the YEP: "Padang is the main city in the affected area. Our team arrived on Monday and straight away began assessing the situation and what was needed.
"The injuries are consistent with crush injuries - you get a combination of broken bones and soft tissue being destroyed.
"Surgeons will amputate the limb, but the soft tissue injuries often don't get treated at the time.
"My experience of three earthquakes - I've been out to China and Pakistan - is that the military hospitals are the best set-up as there's no politics."
On Tuesday the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) launched its appeal for Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam raising 1m in 24 hours.
Four million people were affected after an earthquake and typhoons hit south-east Asia.
More than 1,000 people died in Indonesia after the 7.6 Richter scale quake struck on September 30.
Dr Saeed said: "Yesterday morning I saw a 17-year-old girl. She was running away from the earthquake out of a collapsing building.
"When she was some distance out of it she noticed her heel was very painful. She actually had an open wound injury and gangrene then set in.
"Luckily we got to her in time and we should be able to sort it out and save her foot.
"I also treated a little girl with a nasty facial injury in her cheek which had been sown up in quite a distorted way. I cleaned it up and hopefully there shouldn't be too much of a scar.
"Any surgeon would want to help in that situation, but particularly when you've got four young daughters of your own - you couldn't walk away."
According to the Indonesia authorities 83,712 houses, 200 public buildings and 285 schools were destroyed.
Another 100,000 buildings and 20 miles of road were badly damaged and five bridges had collapsed.
The DEC consists of 13 aid agencies including Merlin, the British Red Cross, Islamic Relief and Oxfam.
A gift of 25 can pay for a life saving surgical kit or food for a family for one month while 100 will pay for emergency shelters for five homeless families.
To make a donation visit www.dec.org.uk, call 0370 60 60 900, or donate over the counter at any post office or high street bank.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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