Operation Blessing is first-responder at Indonesia earthquake
Operation Blessing Indonesia Director, Mark McClendon, arrived Saturday in Yogyakarta with OBI medical teams.
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YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia - "Hospitals are filled beyond capacity with people lining up outside the doors and stacked in parking lots," according to Operation Blessing Indonesia Director Mark McClendon, "thousands are reported dead and tens of thousands wounded."
McClendon is on the ground at the site of Saturday's catastrophic 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Yogyakarta on the island of Java. Operation Blessing flew in an emergency medical team (17 doctors, 9 nurses and a team of OBI volunteers) to support the overflow of victims at surrounding hospitals.
In addition, a convoy of trucks transporting medicines and medical supplies, including three Operation Blessing ambulances, are en route to the devastated area.
McClendon continues by reporting from the field, "The scene in the area is surreal, crumbled buildings are alongside untouched buildings, with virtually everyone standing and sitting outside, afraid to go inside any building. Survivors are terrified of another quake and feel safer under the sky rather than a roof. At the hospitals, there are hundreds of injured stretched out on blankets in the parking lots and on the grass. Compound fractures with bones protruding from crushed limbs are the most common injury. Doctors are walking from patient to patient treating as many as they can. The night air is filled with the moans of suffering victims."
"Our immediate focus as first-responders is to provide support to overworked hospitals and go to outlying areas to treat critically injured patients," states Bill Horan, Operation Blessing President.
How You Can Help
Tens of thousands of earthquake victims in Indonesia are in need of emergency medical aid. Operation Blessing teams are on the ground
and working throughout the affected region. Be a part of OBI’s relief efforts throughout Indonesia by making a financial donation today.
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