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Four-year-old Fili lies on a bed in the National Hospital in Apia - Source: Reuters -
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The wreckage in Samoa has been plain to see but the human cost of the tsunami is still revealing itself.
Kiwi medics are at the front line in the now overcrowded national hospital in the capital, Apia, dealing with issues that are quite common to home.
"A lot of trauma we're seeing is not dissimilar to motorcycle trauma in that there's very large defects in the soft tissues and with underlying fractures," says Surgeon Chris Fougere.
Some who suffered injuries are now battling major infection by a flesh destroying bacteria.
"The word that many people would recognise is necrotizing fasciitis and that's what's really developing in a lot of these wounds," says Anaesthetist Alan Goodie.
PJ Faumui is Samoan born now an Ear Nose and Throat surgeon in Wanganui.
The Kiwis desperately need a CPAC machine from New Zealand to help a young man breathe. He, like many others, swallowed sea water and now has pneumonia and severe breathing problems.
"The various levels of having to get the requests through has been very frustrating," says Faumui.
The Kiwi's are not just working in the hospitals, but villages like Fusi on the southern coast.
Many of those injured just are not taking themselves to the hospital.
"A lot of men who are carrying their injuries, sort of protecting their families," says Glenn Twentyman, an Auckland GP who changed his holiday plans to come to Samoa.
While Twentyman has to return to New Zealand on Wednesday, others will be staying to work alongside the Samoans for months to come.
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