Every patient has a story, says Spanish doctor treating quake victims in Türkiye

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

HATAY, Türkiye (AA) - Every patient has a story, according to a Spanish doctor who is treating earthquake victims in Türkiye, relating some of the heartbreaking lived experiences of survivors.

Juan Carlos Martinez Escoriaza, a gynecologist, spoke to Anadolu from a field hospital run by the Spanish Technical Aid Response Team (START) in the Iskenderun district of the southern Hatay province, hit hard by twin earthquakes on Feb. 6.

"Each patient we see has a story," Martinez said. "I can speak from a patient from this afternoon who consulted me about gynecology because she says that her gynecologist has died and she does not have a consultation here."

"Or a child who has come to the pediatrics and has been asking for water. Just water. It is inconceivable to me and it breaks our hearts," he added.

That's why, Escoriaza said, he and his team had to come to Türkiye to cover some part of the health care shortage in the wake of the quakes.

Noting that the START field hospital has so far treated more than 700 patients since it opened on Monday, he said they were 82 aid workers, firefighters, lawyers, nurses, midwives, and doctors were serving with their different specialties.

According to a previous announcement by the Spanish Embassy in Ankara, the hospital can provide care to 200 patients daily and it has the capacity to perform up to seven major and 15 minor surgeries in the field operating room.

It can also accommodate 20 patients in its own hospitalization area.

- Field hospitals 'essential' in quake-hit zones

Asked whether more field hospitals should be opened in the country's 11 earthquake-hit provinces, Escoriaza said such facilities are "essential."

Having such hospitals and professionals ready to deploy is the "real formula" of providing help, he added.

"The important thing about this is that we have had previous training in Spain and we are prepared to leave immediately, which is the real formula to be able to help."

"These types of hospitals, coordinated by the WHO (World Health Organization), are efficient," he underlined.

Martinez, who normally works in the coastal Spanish city of Alicante, said that the hospital staff was on a 15-day rotation due to exhaustion that was "more psychological than physical."

More than 38,000 people have died in two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye last week, the country's disaster agency said.

The Feb. 6 magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in less than 10 hours.