Luggage bungle, red tape delay Nepal disaster relief

MORE lives could have been saved if vital search-and-rescue equipment had arrived in Nepal with the South African disaster-relief team.

For 48 hours, the team of doctors, paramedics and search-and-rescue experts were grounded at a Kathmandu school, held up by bureaucratic red tape and the nondelivery of vital equipment and medical supplies.

Although the team could go to areas affected by the 7.8magnitude earthquake, they could not perform full searches because not all team members were equipped.

Crucial pieces of safety equipment, such as helmets, protective clothing and torches, were never loaded on the plane taking the team from Singapore to Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Personal items of luggage were also left behind.

The team were also delayed in getting the first group of doctors accredited to work in local hospitals. Permission was granted late on Thursday night, and the team performed their first procedures on Friday morning. Among them was the reconstruction of a 10-year-old’s arm.

The equipment arrived late Friday night with a second team of trauma specialists.

Gift of the Givers boss Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, who arrived with the second team on Friday, said: “The morale is much higher . . . the equipment that enables the team to go out and be field specialists has arrived. We are excited now.”