JAPAN: Military medical team has left Tokyo's airport to applause as it heads for earthquake-devastated Haiti
Record ID:
465376
JAPAN: Military medical team has left Tokyo's airport to applause as it heads for earthquake-devastated Haiti
- Title: JAPAN: Military medical team has left Tokyo's airport to applause as it heads for earthquake-devastated Haiti
- Date: 22nd January 2010
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JANUARY 21, 2010) (REUTERS) MEMBERS OF JAPANESE GROUND SELF DEFENCE FORCE (JGSDF) MEDICAL TEAM WALKING INTO PASSENGER TERMINAL OF NARITA AIRPORT MORE OF TEAM MEMBERS WALKING TEAM MEMBERS WALKING IN COLUMN AS COLLEAGUES AND SPECTATORS CLAP SPECTATORS CLAPPING MEDICAL EQUIPMENT BOX BEING CARRIED SPECTATORS CLAPPING MORE OF TEAM MEMBERS WALKING IN COLUMN MILITARY PERSONNEL CLAPPING MAKOTO SHIRAKAWA, JAPANESE GROUND SELF DEFENCE FORCE COLONEL, MEETING REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) JAPANESE GROUND SELF DEFENCE FORCE COLONEL MAKOTO SHIRAKAWA SAYING: "Standing at the same eye-level of the patients, we'd like to lay helping hands from our hearts to those suffering in Haiti." SHIRAKAWA LISTENING TO REPORTER'S QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) JAPANESE GROUND SELF DEFENCE FORCE COLONEL MAKOTO SHIRAKAWA SAYING: "About 40 medical workers, including 14 doctors, will provide medical and surgical treatment, which will be the main type of needs there." SIGN BOARD ABOVE DEPARTURE GATE SENIOR OFFICERS SHAKING HANDS WITH TEAM MEMBERS TEAM MEMBERS WALKING THROUGH DEPARTURE GATE
- Embargoed: 6th February 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Japan
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVA6A59Y6YR9FHL27QJWO90RNWF6
- Story Text: Japan on Thursday (January 21) dispatched a medical team to earthquake-hit Haiti to assist relief efforts.
The team of roughly 100 medical and supporting personnel, including 14 doctors, from the Ground Self Defense Force (GSDF), left Tokyo's Narita airport on Thursday night, bound for Miami aboard a chartered aircraft.
Transportation from Miami to the devastated Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince was not yet confirmed, but the C-130H plane, which carried a team of soldiers from Japan earlier that day, is likely to conduct another 1100-kilometer (700 miles) mission for the medics, an GSDF media official said.
"Standing at the same eye-level of the patients, we'd like to lay helping hands from our hearts to those suffering in Haiti," GSDF Colonel Makoto Shirakawa, the head of the expedition, told reporters in the terminal.
"About 40 medical workers, including 14 doctors, will provide medical and surgical treatment, which will be the main type of needs there," Shirakawa added.
The team may join the civilian Japanese medical team of 24 members in Leogane, about 40 kilometres (24 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Japanese media reported. But, it is not known whether the medics will replace civilian doctors.
The expected date of arrival in Port-au-Prince is not yet confirmed, but the team will try to save more lives in the devastated Caribbean country at least for two weeks, GSDF officials said.
Haitian officials estimated the death toll from last week's magnitude 7.0 quake could be between 100,000 and 200,000, and said 75,000 bodies had already been buried in mass graves.
So far, feared outbreaks of infectious diseases have not erupted, although many of the injured faced the immediate threats of tetanus and gangrene.
Hospitals were overwhelmed and doctors lacked anaesthesia, forcing them to operate with only local painkillers.
International search and rescue teams were still combing rubble for survivors and had pulled 121 people from collapsed buildings, a record for the number rescued after an earthquake, the Pan-American Health Organization said.
The World Food Programme had provided 200,000 people with rations for seven days, but the International Organization for Migration estimated that 200,000 families -- or one million people -- were in need of immediate shelter. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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