Doctors in a Turkish field hospital in the southern city of Iskenderun say they are treating increasing numbers of patients suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and panic, PTSD, attacks after last week’s earthquake.
Indian Army Major Beena Tiwari said; “Initially the patients were those who sustained injuries under the rubble, now more of the patients are coming with post-traumatic stress disorder, following all the shock that they’ve gone through during the earthquake and what they have seen.”
”Many people were coming with panic attacks,” she added.
The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria exceeds 37,000, and the earthquake and its aftershock has destroyed whole cities in both countries, leaving survivors homeless in the bitter cold, with many struggling to find shelter and basic sanitation.
The extent of the trauma survivors have experienced is enormous. Some have been pulled from the rubble after hours in the cold and darkness to discover family members have died or are missing, and the busy neighbourhoods where they lived have been reduced to mounds of shattered concrete.
Tiwari is part of a team of almost 100 experts from India who established a field hospital to treat survivors of the earthquake, one of the worst in Turkey’s modern history, after a local hospital was destroyed.
PTSD is caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events, and people with PTSD can relive the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may have difficulties sleeping and concentrating.
Iskenderun hospital commander Yaduvir Singh said they were also seeing more patients with infectious diseases and upper respiratory infections, and the thousands of people living in tents outside in freezing
The World Health Organization has launched a $43 million appeal to provide trauma care and rehabilitation, essential medicines, mental and psycho social support, and to continue routine health services in Turkey.
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