In victim-filled hospitals, hope nurtures to overcome quake disaster
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—When severely injured Muhammad Wasim crawled out of his collapsed classroom that fateful October morning, he did not know that he would be just one of the three 10th Class students to survive the mountain-shaking earthquake.
But today, three weeks after the deadly temblor, lying in a capital hospital with a plastered arm, the 16-year old survivor knows that he would have to overcome the loss of his classmates and a loving father to begin life anew on the ruins of his remote Shala Bagh village in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
"In the first few days, I was shocked and didn't know what was in store for me and my relatives back in the valley - but now I have learnt that I will have to gather all my energy to go back and build our house," says Wasim while getting ready for transplantation of flesh on the worsening part of his arm.
Airlifted three days after the October 8 catastrophe, Wasim's injury on the arm had festered to the extent that removal of the affected flesh and transplantation was the only option left for doctors.
Such was the ferocity of the 7.6-magnitude quake in Wasim's village that only 200 out of 900 high school students could escape the falling debris to breathe again. The village lost about 50 houses and saw hundreds of its inhabitants becoming eternal victims of the tragedy.
The quake, which staggered NWFP and Azad Kashmir at 8:52 in the morning, took a heavy toll on students as thousands of rickety schools perched on mountain slopes and edges caved in, giving little chance to awestruck children to get out of their packed classrooms. "I have lost my friends, relatives and my father - but look around me everyone here has lost so much now I have given up all fears," he says, pointing to a number of patients, who are undergoing treatment at the G-6/1-1 government hospital. Estimates say about 20,000 children received serious injuries in the quake, with many of them facing life with amputations. But Wasim is resolved to brave out these traumatic times to live in the post-quake world, which would be minus his friends, relatives and the halcyon climate of hills he had known before that October 8 morning.
"Now my mission is to go back and do something for my family and all the injured, who need me - I don't know what will I study or do - but so many people have lost their limbs that I must try to help them," says Wasim, pointing to a number of injured lodged in the corridor of the small hospital.
On a nearby bed lies, Tauqeer ul Hassan, a 12-year old student, who sustained multiple injuries and has both legs plastered. "It was as if all things, roofs and hills were coming down on us," he says, recalling the grim moments, which also claimed lives of his sister, mother and grandmother in Gharri Dupatta, some 22 km from the quake-battered AJK capital of Muzaffarabad. His father survived because he jumped out of his office in Muzaffarabad Young Tauqueer has no words to recollect the shocking moments but says people visiting him and a caring staff at the healthcare unit, a sectoral subsidiary of the Federal Government Services Hospital, have been very helpful.
"I was scared like everyone, when I came here - people have been encouraging me - I think I will be able to walk again and live with my father and brother," he says with a sudden glint in his eyes, signifying the indomitable human spirit and a hope for future.
The child also waves back to a citizen, who distributed gifts among the quake victims including him. His elder brother Zameer ul Hassan has been a constant source of encouragement for him during this excruciating period, marked by a deep sense of loss and pangs of their mother’s parting. "You know it's been so tough, so sudden and so painful -people have been so kind and helpful - I think we can piece life together with consistent support from the government and the society," says Zameer, a brooding MSc student at AJK University, which lost a generation of talented students and trained faculty.