'I thought it was a dream': Nepal quake survivor recalls moment disaster struck

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/01/nepal-earthquake-survivor-kathmandu

Version 0 of 1.

After the walls around his room collapsed in Saturday’s earthquake, Pemba Tamang was not sure if he was dreaming or already dead. Trapped under two metres of rubble, the 15-year-old sat crouched and unable to move for 120 hours. He sucked sweat from his clothes and ate what remained of his lunch to survive.

“I knew it was an earthquake,” Tamang told the Guardian on Friday. “But then I thought it was a dream. I don’t know if I’m still dreaming.” Initially, trapped in the ruins of the Kathmandu hotel where he worked, he tried calling for help. But after two days he gave up, thinking no one would come. “No one could hear me so I stopped shouting,” he said.

Eventually someone did come. Tamang was dug out of the rubble by a US-assisted Nepalese rescue team on Thursday. He is recovering at an Israeli military-run medical facility in the Nepalese capital, walking slightly hunched and with a limp. He has minor bruises and scrapes to his face and limbs but no serious injuries. Doctors think he will be discharged soon.

But Tamang has no home to return to. He used to live at the guesthouse, now a pile of bricks and lumber. When he is discharged he’ll leave with his father. But even his home collapsed in the earthquake that has destroyed more than 90% of buildings in rural areas.

“My home is destroyed,” Surya Tamang, Pemba’s father, said. “We now live in a tent with the rest of the family. But I’m so happy my son is alive and that no other members of my family members were hurt.”

Related: Nepal earthquake death toll exceeds 6,000 with thousands unaccounted for

On the same day, the Nepalese army and experts from France, Norway and Israel rescued a second survivor from the ruins. Krishna Devi Khadka, 30, was also taken to the Israeli field hospital and is in a critical condition.

Stories like Tamang’s and Khadka’s have been rare in the days after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 6,000 and injured thousands more, according to the UN. There have yet to be more reports of people being trapped under rubble for five days and surviving.

Mostly bodies have been pulled from beneath collapsed buildings. At first, survivors overwhelmed local and international medical staff, but now there are fewer new patients.

“The first day we saw 300 and the second day we saw 200,” Brig Gen Dr Bragendra Srivastava said. “Altogether, we have seen 896 people, and we had 153 admitted until this morning, but we are in the process of sending them to IDP camps. Today we received 30 people. So the number has dwindled.”

Srivastava says they have enough supplies and doctors, but the earthquake damaged hospital infrastructure, leaving operation and recovery rooms unsafe. And, as rescue teams begin to reach more survivors in areas outside Kathmandu, space for new patients may become scarce.

“We have 750 beds, but we can only use 115 because of cracks in the building,” Dr Rajesh Kishor Shrestha, of Nepal Medical College, said. ‘We are not able to run the operation table because there are multiple cracks. We are only running an emergency area.

“We need a tent for an operating room. We have asked the government but they haven’t provided. We have a large number of doctors but they are useless, they are not being used properly here. After some days there will be many people coming here from, but with these cracks, I’m not sure we can serve them.”

A team of Nepalese engineers are inspecting the infrastructure of all hospitals in Kathmandu. Once they are deemed safe, medical teams can begin operating inside again.