Samoa battles tsunami after-effects

Published: 6:22PM Sunday December 06, 2009 Source: ONE News

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Two months after being devastated by a series of tsunamis, Samoa is still struggling to cope with the raft of resulting medical problems.

It is still not known what the long term prognosis for hundreds of survivors will be.

Letty Fatuese, who lost two children in the disaster, has been left dealing with both emotional and physical trauma.

She was left with leg and eye injuries.

While she is due to have an operation to insert a metal rod in her leg, for now she has to control her pain with Panadol.

However she has been treating the eye injury with medical supplies sent from New Zealand relatives, because she cannot afford the treatment in hospital.

"At the hospital I always paying five dollars (for the dressing)," she says.

The medical services do the best they can with what they have got, and overseas help and donated goods are gratefully received.

"These drugs that are donated are so helpful to us because sometimes we're running out of it," says nurse Avaia Tuilaepa Lautusi.

But Samoan medical officials deny there is a drug shortage.

They say the main issue is dealing with hundreds of cases of so-called tsunami lung in survivors who took water and debris into their lungs when the wave struck.

Samoa has asked a New Zealand respiratory specialist to do follow up care for these patients.

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