Lombok earthquake: Days after quake strikes, the injured and stricken await treatment

Falling rubble instantly paralysed Mary Andoni from the waist down when Indonesia was shaken by one of its deadliest earthquakes in years. But there was nobody in her destroyed village to get her the help she needed. There were too many other injured and dead.

"It was overwhelming," Andoni's 35-year-old brother-in-law, Ilham, said of the chaotic aftermath of Sunday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake on the island of Lombok. "There was no way to get her out." On Thursday, paramedics evacuated Andoni to a hospital in the city of Mataram. But her experience underscores the challenges facing this region: Four days after the earthquake killed hundreds and displaced 270,000 more, injured survivors in remote areas cut off by landslides and broken bridges are still emerging.

Three earthquakes in a matter of days have devastated the Indonesian island of Lombok. Photo / AP

Lombok has been hit by more than 300 aftershocks, including a 5.9 magnitude tremor on Thursday that brought down more buildings and injured 24 more people, authorities said.

At a first aid station in Kayangan that was set up under a tent, Dr Mohammad Akbar said medical staff were combing the region with an ambulance.

He said they had later found and treated 40 people with broken bones, cuts and bruises. Many were also dehydrated.

"They're all stuck in isolated areas with little or no transport," Akbar said. "They're too weak to get here on their own, so we need to go to them." One 3-year-old girl, he said, had been found with a wounded foot that had turned pale blue. Doctors at another Lombok hospital had to amputate it.

- AP