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American Morning
Aftermath of Iranian Earthquake
Aired January 02, 2004 - 08:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go overseas right now. Nationwide services held in Iran today remembering the 30,000 victims of last Friday's earthquake. It's been a week now. The Iranian Army pulled more survivors out of the rubble, bringing to 11 the number of people found alive over the past few days.
Marty Bahamonde is the spokesman for the U.S. emergency medical team.
He is live there in that hard hit town of Bam.
And we appreciate your time in sharing with us your thoughts and reflections.
It's been a week. What can you say has been progress? What progress has been made, can you say, in the past week's time there in Bam?
MARTY BAHAMONDE, SPOKESMAN, U.S. EMERGENCY MEDICAL TEAM IN IRAN: Well, Bill, the progress that we're starting to see is the medical community in Bam is starting to rebound. Near our medical tent, they're starting to put up a temporary medical facility. There are Iranian doctors working next to the American doctors and hopefully with that coordination and the patient exchange, once their facility is up in a couple of weeks, a lot of the patients can be transferred to that area.
HEMMER: These numbers continuing to just astound. They are truly staggering. Two hospitals destroyed in that town, 23 health centers destroyed. It says at least two thirds of the town's health workers were killed.
How are you able, then, to keep up and meet the challenges, knowing the devastating toll that has taken place?
BAHAMONDE: Well, it's extremely challenging. The FEMA medical tent went up yesterday and within 24 hours we've seen over 200 patients. What we're starting to find is that a lot of patients who hadn't sought medical help simply because there was nothing available, and so they've now sought that help. And we've been very busy at the tent.
We've done our first surgery, in which an Iranian soldier was shot. And so we performed our first surgery last night. And just before I came down to do this interview, a woman in labor came into our tent. So hopefully later on today we'll have some good news about that. But it's been a challenge because there really are no medical facilities available here in Bam.
HEMMER: We talked about the victims in this case, 30,000 injured, 100,000 left homeless. Of the people who survived, how are they dealing with this now? How are they coping?
BAHAMONDE: Well, it's difficult, as you can imagine. I mean most of them come in and just aren't sure what's happening. Like I said, after seven days, they're now just starting to seek medical help, because I think it was just so devastating that many just don't know where to go or what to do. And a lot of them are just sitting around the streets. And it's an awful sight around here and we're just here trying to help as much as we can.
HEMMER: Wow.
The initial greeting of American aid, we're told, was greeted quite warmly by the people there in southeastern Iran.
Would people in Tehran know about the U.S. assistance, people in other parts of the country? Would they be aware of that?
BAHAMONDE: Oh, absolutely. You know, as you well know, the world's media is here covering this event and Tehran is very interested in what's happening in Bam and certainly interested in the American contingent being here. And so, yes, we've spoken to a lot of people and a lot of doctors from Tehran have come down and visited our tent. There's quite an interest here in Iran that we're here helping.
HEMMER: Marty Bahamonde there in Bam, as the efforts continue, now a week old.
Good luck to you.
Thanks again for your time here.
Wow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 2, 2004 - 08:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go overseas right now. Nationwide services held in Iran today remembering the 30,000 victims of last Friday's earthquake. It's been a week now. The Iranian Army pulled more survivors out of the rubble, bringing to 11 the number of people found alive over the past few days.
Marty Bahamonde is the spokesman for the U.S. emergency medical team.
He is live there in that hard hit town of Bam.
And we appreciate your time in sharing with us your thoughts and reflections.
It's been a week. What can you say has been progress? What progress has been made, can you say, in the past week's time there in Bam?
MARTY BAHAMONDE, SPOKESMAN, U.S. EMERGENCY MEDICAL TEAM IN IRAN: Well, Bill, the progress that we're starting to see is the medical community in Bam is starting to rebound. Near our medical tent, they're starting to put up a temporary medical facility. There are Iranian doctors working next to the American doctors and hopefully with that coordination and the patient exchange, once their facility is up in a couple of weeks, a lot of the patients can be transferred to that area.
HEMMER: These numbers continuing to just astound. They are truly staggering. Two hospitals destroyed in that town, 23 health centers destroyed. It says at least two thirds of the town's health workers were killed.
How are you able, then, to keep up and meet the challenges, knowing the devastating toll that has taken place?
BAHAMONDE: Well, it's extremely challenging. The FEMA medical tent went up yesterday and within 24 hours we've seen over 200 patients. What we're starting to find is that a lot of patients who hadn't sought medical help simply because there was nothing available, and so they've now sought that help. And we've been very busy at the tent.
We've done our first surgery, in which an Iranian soldier was shot. And so we performed our first surgery last night. And just before I came down to do this interview, a woman in labor came into our tent. So hopefully later on today we'll have some good news about that. But it's been a challenge because there really are no medical facilities available here in Bam.
HEMMER: We talked about the victims in this case, 30,000 injured, 100,000 left homeless. Of the people who survived, how are they dealing with this now? How are they coping?
BAHAMONDE: Well, it's difficult, as you can imagine. I mean most of them come in and just aren't sure what's happening. Like I said, after seven days, they're now just starting to seek medical help, because I think it was just so devastating that many just don't know where to go or what to do. And a lot of them are just sitting around the streets. And it's an awful sight around here and we're just here trying to help as much as we can.
HEMMER: Wow.
The initial greeting of American aid, we're told, was greeted quite warmly by the people there in southeastern Iran.
Would people in Tehran know about the U.S. assistance, people in other parts of the country? Would they be aware of that?
BAHAMONDE: Oh, absolutely. You know, as you well know, the world's media is here covering this event and Tehran is very interested in what's happening in Bam and certainly interested in the American contingent being here. And so, yes, we've spoken to a lot of people and a lot of doctors from Tehran have come down and visited our tent. There's quite an interest here in Iran that we're here helping.
HEMMER: Marty Bahamonde there in Bam, as the efforts continue, now a week old.
Good luck to you.
Thanks again for your time here.
Wow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
