Background

In October 2005, an earthquake measuring a massive 7.6 on the Richter Scale struck the Kashmir region of Pakistan, taking approximately 75,000 lives and devastating the landscape of affected areas. The disaster inflicted appalling casualties on the region’s population, with buildings collapsing on office workers, school children, men and women. Roads, water and electricity supplies were all severely damaged, making aid efforts particularly difficult and producing hazardous conditions for relief workers to work within.

Our Involvement

Along with colleagues from DOGANE, MIST and BAPRAS, Mr Mohammad Jawad flew to Pakistan to lead a team in offering combined surgical expertise to victims of the disaster. They carried out a spectrum of reconstructive procedures, ranging from simple treatments through to the most complex Limb Salvaging procedures on 25 patients a day for 7 weeks.

Al-Shifa Pharmaceuticals offered the team a unique opportunity to bring their expertise under one roof to provide a comprehensive, 80-bed one-stop trauma unit to deal with both simple and complex bony & soft tissue injuries. This became a primary and tertiary unit for complex Reconstructive Limb Salvaging, with the support of a selfless and motivated team of Ophthalmic-trained staff members.