Makeshift Clinic at Kerman Airport

January 2, 2004

Makeshift Clinic at Airport
The Star, Malaysia


Mercy Malaysia has joined international teams which have arrived in the ancient 
city of Bam in Iran to provide humanitarian halp and medical assistance to over 
30,000 injured victims of the earthquake that has killed about 30,000 people so 
far. The Star's Chief Reporter JOSEPH RAJ and photographer LOW BOON TAT are 
there to provide first-hand accounts of the mercy mission 

KERMAN: It was a bitterly cold 4°C when we landed at Kerman Airport here in 
south-eastern Iran at noon yesterday. 

This, we had anticipated and were well prepared with our winter jackets and 
gloves. 

But our group of 10, comprising six Mercy Malaysia volunteers and four 
Malaysian journalists, did not foresee the bitterness and sorrow that greeted 
us as we walked into the airport lounge to collect our baggage. 

  
The makeshift clinic at the Kerman Airport lounge.  
Passengers on the Iran Air domestic flight that arrived from Teheran Airport 
began weeping openly as they were greeted by friends and family members. 

Almost all had lost relatives and family members in the devastating earthquake, 
which hit the ancient Silk Road city of Bam, about 180km from here, on Friday. 

Golam Zeir was among the grieving many. He has not been to his birthplace of 
Bam in 10 years and when the naturalised American citizen finally made it back 
to Iran yesterday, it was a journey wrought with sorrow. 

Golam, 54, arrived with his wife Nasreen after hearing that both his parents 
had perished in the 6.5 magnitude earthquake. 

The couple just could not control their emotions when they were met by his 
cousin Ali Ameri, 47, at the airport. 

“What can I say? It is fated that I will not be able to see both my parents 
alive again,” said Golam, who was immediately hugged by his crying wife. 

Ali said that his cousin, who works as an accountant in San Francisco, would 
now make the road trip to Bam to conduct the final rites. 

Another passenger Azadeh Olia, who resides in San Jose, California, though calm 
and collected during the two-hour flight, also broke into tears when met by her 
relatives, including three others who had come from Europe. 

“The four of us lost 50 of our relatives in the Bam earthquake. Now, there 
are only a few people left whom we can call our kin in Bam,” she said before 
rushing over to console a relative, who was weeping uncontrollably nearby. 

However, tears of sadness were not the only ones flowing at Kerman Airport – 
there were also cries of pain. 

The crowded airport lounge had been turned into a makeshift clinic for the 
injured arriving from Bam, who were waiting to be airlifted to hospitals in 
Teheran. 

Ambulances carrying the many injured men and women rolled in like clockwork at 
the airport.  

The injured were transferred onto stretchers before being taken into the 
makeshift clinic with IV bottles held up by Iranian Red Crescent volunteers 
while doctors studied X-rays of the victims. 

Some were beyond saving. One of the victims, a young man with a heavily 
bandaged head and face, was pronounced dead as volunteers were trying to move 
him onto a stretcher. 

Iranian Red Crescent volunteer Abdul Hakim Jangji, 20, said the makeshift 
clinic saw an average of 150 victims each day since he arrived from 
Khof-Khorasan in eastern Iran on Sunday. 

And like all Iranians, Abdul Hakim, an agriculture undergraduate, is determined 
to lend a hand for as long as it was needed. 

“We cannot simply not do anything and watch our countrymen suffer,” said 
Abdul Hakim. 

The same rings true for 60-year-old Mirbeigi, who owns an engineering firm in 
Bandar Abbas. 

“Thank you for coming to Iran. It does not matter if you are not able to save 
even one life ... I am still thankful for your assistance to the people of 
Iran,” he told us at the Teheran Airport with tears welling in his eyes. 

Mirbeigi said three of his staff, from Bam, had lost their family members in 
the earthquake. 

“My secretary lost her entire family (on her father’s side) while two 
brothers who also work for me lost several family members.  

“It’s such a tragedy. My only hope is that Malaysians will never have to 
face such devastation,” he said, as he excused himself to catch a flight to 
Bandar Abbas. 

The Mercy Malaysia volunteers are neurosurgeon Dr Dilshaad Ali Abas Ali 
(mission leader), physician Dr Syarikin Muhamed Senin, paediatric surgeon Dr 
Lai Fui Boon, paramedic Hasrizal Hassan, staff nurse Benjamin Chai and Mercy 
Malaysia exco member Norazam Abu Samah. 
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