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April 17, 2010

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Badly hurt taken out of area

AT least 1,060 critically injured survivors were taken out of quake-hit Yushu in northwest China's Qinghai Province to hospitals with better medical facilities, an official with the Ministry of Health said yesterday.

"Considering the poor state of local hospitals, most of the critically injured in the quake must be transferred," said Wang Yu.

Wang said 631 people were taken to hospitals in the provincial capital, Xining; 206 to Chengdu, capital of neighboring Sichuan Province; 128 were to Lanzhou, capital of neighboring Gansu Province; and the rest to Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province.

"We have coordinated with hospitals in Xining to reserve 2,000 beds, as well as 500 in Chengdu, 500 in Lanzhou and 100 in Xi'an," Wang said.

The medical operation in Yushu differed from that of the Sichuan quake in 2008 because of the high altitude and fluctuation in temperatures, Wang said.

Yushu lies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at an altitude of over 4,000 meters. "The altitude sickness and thin air in Yushu have brought many troubles, and it's freezing cold at night," Wang said.

The area had no big hospitals to treat the critically injured, and Qinghai's provincial hospital was more than 800 kilometers away, Wang said.

About 40 critically injured survivors were sent to Xining on Wednesday, Wang said.

By yesterday morning, the ministry had sent 1,618 surgeons and nurses from across the country to the quake zone with medical supplies.

 

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