Baby becomes symbol of hope
Muzaffarabad (PoK), AFP:
A baby girl born in this quake-hit city of death and devastation has become a
symbol of hope for survivors, much as the “tsunami baby” captured the
imagination of Sri Lankans when he survived the giant waves last December.
“Word has spread and everyone wants to see her,” said Ismet Kamal, a
volunteer from Karachi at the field hospital where the baby was born on
Saturday. “Survivors come to see her - they say she brings hope,” she said.
Gynaecologist Azhra Ahsan said the baby had come as a “nice surprise. It made
everyone happy to have a baby born. There has been so much death here,” the
doctor said.
Dr Ahsan said she had not expected to do much gynaecological work when she
volunteered to join the team from The Citizens Foundation non-governmental
organisation that runs the field hospital in Muzaffarabad, where nearly half of
the 38,000 victims of the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan died.
“I was working in the (field hospital) stores when a doctor from another camp
came and said they had brought a woman down from the mountains who was about to
deliver and that she may need a caesarian section," Dr Ahsan said.
"We set up and were ready to perform the operation but when we examined her
we found she was already in labour.
The baby then had a natural birth." News of the newborn sent cheers through
the hospital, where around 20 survivors are being treated, as well as around the
nearby army stadium where relief operations are centered in the ravaged capital
of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
[Deccan Herald, Monday, October 17, 2005]