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Quake victims 'psychologically very weak'

By Zhang Jin and Zuo Likun (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-17 09:19
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Many patients yelling and screaming in their sleep

Quake victims 'psychologically very weak'

Xining, Qinghai - Tseten Dolma is having nightmares.

The 12-year-old Tibetan girl could not sleep on Thursday night even though she knew she is safe now.

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"The house is falling! Run! Run!" she screamed in the middle of the night, with tears slipping down her cheeks, at the Hospital Affiliated to Qinghai University, where she has been lodged since being rescued from the debris of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Qinghai on Wednesday.

The earthquake, which has killed at least 1,144 dead and injured 11,744 as of Firday, left Dolma's face and back badly bruised.

But the psychological trauma the 12-year-old is going through is of more concern to Yeshe Tsomo, a volunteer from the Qinghai Normal University.

Tsomo, 19, was the first to speak to Dolma after she was rushed to Xining, where nearly 700 injured are being treated.

It seems the girl has taken a liking to Tsomo.

"She speaks to no one and cries if I leave her sight," Tsomo said.

Dolma seemed better on Friday morning after visiting her father, who was being treated in another ward at the same hospital.

A wooden beam fell on Dolma's father, Dorje Gyatso, crushing his leg and three ribs, when they were trying to rush out of their falling house.

Dolma even ate some cooked cauliflower and rice after she visited her father, Tsomo said.

More than 30 doctors and medical staff stood by at the gates of the hospital, as ambulances continued to bring in injured victims straight from the airport.

The hospital has treated nearly 200 injured since Wednesday, Liu Hongxing, the director of the hospital, told China Daily.

Some of the patients were still in fear on Thursday, volunteers said, adding that a few even yelled and starting crying in the sleep.

But things are looking better after the hospital organized a team of counselors to help calm the patients down.

"Psychological counseling is a long-term process," said Liu Lingping, director of the hospital's intensive care unit. "What we are doing right now is curing them physically. Psychologically, most of them are very weak."

At the Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, extra beds were put along the corridors outside the wards.

A number of Tibetan university students in Xining have volunteered to be interpreters for doctors and patients.

Tsering Palden, one of the volunteers at the Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, said he didn't sleep the past two days.

"I can't believe what's happened. Many of my classmates have lost their families," the freshman at the Qinghai University of Nationalities said.

The 19-year-old, a Yushu native, was fortunate to escape the quake because his house lies some distance away from the epicenter.