Bhuj Earthquake...

I was the officer in charge of Operation theatre ex- 411 Field Ambulance established at Bhachau, 60 Kms from Bhuj. I was sent to the location after I reported to Military Hospital Bhuj which was badly destroyed in the earthquake...the 2001 Gujarat earthquake also known as the Bhuj earthquake which occurred on 26 January ( India's 52nd Republic Day ) at 08:46 AM IST and lasted for over 2 minutes, 7.9 on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at Bhachau exactly at the place where we established our operation theatre under the guidance of Col Goswami Commanding Officer of 411 Field Ambulance. I was sent to the location immediately from Military Hospital, Dhrangadhra, Gujarat where I was posted at that time. I can never forget the night of 26/27 January 2001 at Bhachau Bhuj when we just finished fixing the tent of our operation theatre and retired to our bed at around 2 am when I heard a truck stopping next to our location. I was extremely tired after constant travelling in the day from Dhrangadhra to Bhuj and then from Bhuj to Bhachau and establishing the make shift operation theatre at Bhachau at night. I just wanted to sleep but I could see something burning next to our location near the truck. Initially, I thought, it could be wood-burning fireplace to combat the cold weather at that time...but I could sense something was drastically wrong. I went near the fireplace and was shocked to see countless dead children being offloaded from the truck and were being cremated en masse. I didn't know how I returned to my tent and how I slept like log that night. When I got up next morning I saw an NGO team had established a tent next to our location and were distributing food free of cost. I was amazed to look at the people having breakfast next to the same location where children were cremated the previous night. I worked at the same location for nearly three months till last injured person was treated. The mass casualty were mostly given Injection Ketamine during surgery and few were operated under spinal anaesthesia and General Anaesthesia. Three surgical teams including teams from Air Force, Army and Navy worked under me and left but I continued for the longest period at the same place. I must have given anaesthesia to thousands of patients, interestingly, with no deaths. I named a twins born after my anaesthesia as Bhu Devi and Sree Devi ...which was shown in the centre page of India Today. Times of India scribe was constantly in touch with me. I was the one who briefed then defence minister George Fernandes when he visited our location. I treated successfully a couple who were brought out of the debris of a building after being extracted after four days...they survived since they were constantly talking to each other under the debris. I saw a Telugu movie during my college days... Nalugu Stambalata ...the Hero was my favourite...Naresh...but at our location I was the hero...he requested for a picture along with me at the location...when he visited our location along with a team of NGO....Col Pendyala Pradeep, Anaesthesiologist.