Author: Baya Agarwal
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 24, 2005
URL: http://cities.expressindia.com/archivefullstory.php?newsid=158523&creation_date=2005-11-24
Introduction: With no hospital or equipment, exhausted More didn't realise when PM had arrived
They never wanted him to join the army. Today, they couldn't be prouder of their 30-year-old son, the first medical officer to reach quake-hit Uri on October 8.
Mulund resident Anand More spent 10 days in the temblor-ravaged district of Kashmir, from October 8 to October 18, and is now back at his parent's house to spend his two-weeks' leave with wife Neelam (25), a medical student.
''Immediately after the quake, I was told to leave Srinagar's 92 Base Hospital and go to the Uri Field Hospital,'' recalled Anand.
''When I got there, I saw that the actual hospital had collapsed, so there were no X-ray machines or any basic equipment."
"Most of the casualties had been accommodated in a ring of tents surrounding the helipad and there were so many people laid out in stretchers outside the tents that, in many places, you couldn't see the ground.''
For his family, the 10 days Anand spent at Uri were a nightmare come true.
''I was horrified when he was posted to Kashmir,'' admitted father Dattatrey (62), a retired civil engineer with the state government.
''And then for him to be sent right into the fray... we were just praying every day that he would be alright.''
For Neelam, who had just visited Anand in Srinagar and returned to Mumbai on the day of the quake, the hardest part was not being in contact with him.
''I was so worried when I first heard about the earthquake,'' she said.
''And then he called and said he was going to Uri and wouldn't even be able to contact us from there. It was a very difficult time.''
Added Anand's mother Kamal (53): ''We're all just thankful that he returned safe-and so proud of the work he did there.''
Meanwhile, Anand still can't get some of the images of devastation out of his head.
''I remember spending all night trying to do whatever I could for the hundreds of groaning victims and often all I had in terms of equipment was forceps,'' he said.
''And all the time, there was a pile of dead soldiers' bodies to one side, waiting for officers of their respective regiments to claim them. It was an atlas of injuries.''
At one point, he recalled, he was so exhausted that he didn't even realise that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was standing right next to him.
''I was treating this woman, who had a fractured skull, and there was a one-year-old who had lost parents. Suddenly, I looked up and saw our Prime Minister.''
Anand will return to Srinagar on November 25, and hopes to visit Uri to check up on some of the people he treated.
''There was this 15-year-old girl whose condition affected all of us profoundly. She had developed hemothorax, a condition in which blood accumulates in the lungs, and we needed a special tube to empty the fluid. It took us a while to find the tube and she suffered with such dignity. I hope she's doing well now,'' he smiles.
bayaagarwal@expressindia.com