On the morning of September 6, 2014, when Kashmir woke up to the biggest flood of the century.
When J&K witnessed a horrifying flood, several doctors and patients spent four days in a hospital without food, medical supplies and electricity. From operating without resources and delivering C-section babies, these doctors did everything they had to do to save the stranded flood victims.
Dr Teing found herself stuck with hundreds of patients and their attendants at Lal Ded. With the entire hospital plunged in darkness, there was mayhem everywhere.
Dr Teing encountered a pregnant woman admitted for her third delivery and had a low-lying placenta. She was bleeding profusely and needed immediate surgery to save her life and that of her child. But to perform the Caesarean section Dr Teing needed electricity – for giving anaesthesia, oxygen supply and the operation theatre lights. Besides this, she required at least seven units of blood and dressing material. Nothing was available.
Dr Teing created a makeshift operation theatre. The patient was administered spinal anaesthesia. if the spinal anaesthesia wore off mid-procedure, there was no general anaesthesia available to switch over to. Nonetheless, in the haze of natural light, she picked up the knife and went ahead. A healthy baby boy was delivered that day.
Eighteen staff members, including an eight months pregnant gynaecologist, 300 patients and 400 attendants were trapped in the hospital for four days. The patients and their attendants were hungry and the infants on ventilators and incubators, which run on electricity, were freezing in the cold and gasping for oxygen. Dr Teing distributed dextrose saline water for drinking among patients and their attendants.
When the incubators stopped functioning, she taught mothers of the sick neonates the technique of Kangaroo Mother Care and demonstrated how they could keep their infants warm by holding them tightly to their bodies.
Fortunately, on the evening of September 7, two local boys managed to come to them in a boat carrying candles and biscuits. Their arrival cheered up the hundreds stranded there. Dr Teing performed six deliveries in candlelight and six healthy babies were born.
Fortunately, by then, rescue teams got to them. Dr Teing was taken out of Lal Ded in a boat and she saw her husband searching for her among the rescued.
“As there was no power, I used my diesel generator to conduct surgeries. When the diesel ran out, I operated in torchlight. I pleaded with government officials and fuel dealers to provide diesel to no avail,” she shares.
A month down the line, the waters have receded from Srinagar, leaving death, destruction and disease in their wake. However, as long as there are courageous doctors like Teing, Ali and Farooq, patients can at least be assured of a fighting chance.
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