IT WAS HELL ON EARTH
IT WAS HELL ON EARTH
From LUCY ROCK, JOE GORROD AND DONNA CARTON
A Doctor told yesterday how his hospital turned into "hell on earth" as it was swamped with horrifically-injured victims of the Omagh bomb.
Clive Russell said medics treated scores of men, women and children with limbs "hanging off' or terrible wounds.
He added: "I saw blood everywhere. People were screaming in pain. Relatives were distraught, wanting to find their loved ones. It was numbing."
Mr Russell, a consultant physician and medical director at Tyrone County Hospital, worked 10 hours solid treating victims.
A total of 148 casualties arrived in ambulances, lorries and minibuses. Some were even carried in on doors ripped from their hinges in the blast.
Dr Russell, 50, said during the night he amputated the foot of a 10-year-old child - and added: "I carried out so many amputations that I cannot remember if it was a boy or a girl."
Some nurses had the harrowing task of tending their own children, as youngsters and their mothers - out Saturday afternoon shopping on carnival day - bore the brunt.
Father-of-three Dr Russell said: "There were people with huge lumps ripped from their limbs and muscles.
"Some had limbs such as their hands or feet hanging off others had lost them completely.
"Three particular casualties stood out for me.
"There was a young boy who had lost his foot and he was just lying in his bed. He was able to talk to me. I know his father. It was tragic.
"There was one poor lady I know who had lost her foot and her hand. She was brought in still conscious, despite the injuries.
"There was a little Spanish boy. I was trying to talk to him about his awful injuries and I didn't realise he was Spanish at first, he was being so brave.
Chaos
"We had a lot of amputees, but a lot had already happened in the blast, others had such appalling injuries it was likely they were going to lose their limbs."
Dr Russell described his overriding memories of a nightmare day - "a lot of blood, a lot of screaming, a lot of noise and a lot of anger".
He said: "There were harrowing scenes of relatives trying to find people, not knowing whether they were dead or alive, it was like hell on earth.
He and his wife Judy, also a doctor, heard the explosion at their home three miles outside the town.
They immediately drove to the hospital to help. Dr Russell said: "We arrived at 3.45pm and the first rush of casualties was just coming in.
"We moved patients as quickly as we could, sorting out the very ill from the ones that could wait.
"We resuscitated those that needed urgent resuscitation and transferred them to intensive care.
"Every time I looked, another patient was coming through the door."
More than 100 doctors, nurses, therapists and admin workers came from miles to answer an SOS for staff.
Dr Russell, whose hospital usually deals with about 150 patients, said: "It was organised chaos, a flood of things were going on in such a short space of time.
"I can recall closing the doors of a ward and saying I didn't want any more relatives wandering about.
"There were people walking round in a daze. It was dreadful."
Ninety-six of his 148 patients were women, 30 men and 22 children.
He said: "The vast majority were major orthopaedic and glass injuries, and extensive shrapnel injuries to children and adults. There have been traumatic amputations to lower and upper limbs, some serious burns and some serious abdominal injuries."
Dr Russell added: "Most of the patients were youngish mothers, many had been shopping with children."
The consultant told of the makeshift way victims were ferried in and said: "We were turning a woman in her bed last night and saw that she was still lying on the door she had been brought in on."
He went on: "When I got home, I couldn't sleep, I kept going over and over everything I had seen. It was so pointless. These are ordinary people going about their ordinary Saturday business, then this happened.
"These are decent people and Omagh is a quiet market town. No one here will ever forget that dreadful day."
To add to the horror at the scene, a water main burst - washing away bodies covered with curtain material and tablecloths snatched from wrecked shops. Alongside Dr Russell, chief surgeon Dominic Pinto worked through the night to repair shattered bodies.
He said: "It was a battlefield. There were so many patients injured that we didn't know where to start."
Family doctors, surgeons and paramedics raced to the hospital to help. Mr Pinto said: "If it hadn't been for them, we could never have coped."
He added: "Since this is such a small community, it was inevitable that some of the staff knew the victims and recognised them as they washed away the dirt and blood.
"There were some nurses here who were even tending their own children. Unfortunately, one was quite a severe incident."
The Spanish victims of the bomb were youngsters visiting the area with their teachers. The hospital brought in interpreters to take phone calls from parents. One paramedic who ferried a teenage Spanish girl to hospital in Belfast said: "Her leg was torn to shreds and she just couldn't tell us where she was hurting most."
Four piped bands from the area were in Glasgow when the news came through. One member discovered his wife had died.
Dr Pinto added last night: "I want to appeal to these people and say what have they gained by doing this?
"It is their own people they are maiming. Let me not see this sort of thing again. It's dastardly."
From LUCY ROCK, JOE GORROD AND DONNA CARTON
A Doctor told yesterday how his hospital turned into "hell on earth" as it was swamped with horrifically-injured victims of the Omagh bomb.
Clive Russell said medics treated scores of men, women and children with limbs "hanging off' or terrible wounds.
He added: "I saw blood everywhere. People were screaming in pain. Relatives were distraught, wanting to find their loved ones. It was numbing."
Mr Russell, a consultant physician and medical director at Tyrone County Hospital, worked 10 hours solid treating victims.
A total of 148 casualties arrived in ambulances, lorries and minibuses. Some were even carried in on doors ripped from their hinges in the blast.
Dr Russell, 50, said during the night he amputated the foot of a 10-year-old child - and added: "I carried out so many amputations that I cannot remember if it was a boy or a girl."
Some nurses had the harrowing task of tending their own children, as youngsters and their mothers - out Saturday afternoon shopping on carnival day - bore the brunt.
Father-of-three Dr Russell said: "There were people with huge lumps ripped from their limbs and muscles.
"Some had limbs such as their hands or feet hanging off others had lost them completely.
"Three particular casualties stood out for me.
"There was a young boy who had lost his foot and he was just lying in his bed. He was able to talk to me. I know his father. It was tragic.
"There was one poor lady I know who had lost her foot and her hand. She was brought in still conscious, despite the injuries.
"There was a little Spanish boy. I was trying to talk to him about his awful injuries and I didn't realise he was Spanish at first, he was being so brave.
Chaos
"We had a lot of amputees, but a lot had already happened in the blast, others had such appalling injuries it was likely they were going to lose their limbs."
Dr Russell described his overriding memories of a nightmare day - "a lot of blood, a lot of screaming, a lot of noise and a lot of anger".
He said: "There were harrowing scenes of relatives trying to find people, not knowing whether they were dead or alive, it was like hell on earth.
He and his wife Judy, also a doctor, heard the explosion at their home three miles outside the town.
They immediately drove to the hospital to help. Dr Russell said: "We arrived at 3.45pm and the first rush of casualties was just coming in.
"We moved patients as quickly as we could, sorting out the very ill from the ones that could wait.
"We resuscitated those that needed urgent resuscitation and transferred them to intensive care.
"Every time I looked, another patient was coming through the door."
More than 100 doctors, nurses, therapists and admin workers came from miles to answer an SOS for staff.
Dr Russell, whose hospital usually deals with about 150 patients, said: "It was organised chaos, a flood of things were going on in such a short space of time.
"I can recall closing the doors of a ward and saying I didn't want any more relatives wandering about.
"There were people walking round in a daze. It was dreadful."
Ninety-six of his 148 patients were women, 30 men and 22 children.
He said: "The vast majority were major orthopaedic and glass injuries, and extensive shrapnel injuries to children and adults. There have been traumatic amputations to lower and upper limbs, some serious burns and some serious abdominal injuries."
Dr Russell added: "Most of the patients were youngish mothers, many had been shopping with children."
The consultant told of the makeshift way victims were ferried in and said: "We were turning a woman in her bed last night and saw that she was still lying on the door she had been brought in on."
He went on: "When I got home, I couldn't sleep, I kept going over and over everything I had seen. It was so pointless. These are ordinary people going about their ordinary Saturday business, then this happened.
"These are decent people and Omagh is a quiet market town. No one here will ever forget that dreadful day."
To add to the horror at the scene, a water main burst - washing away bodies covered with curtain material and tablecloths snatched from wrecked shops. Alongside Dr Russell, chief surgeon Dominic Pinto worked through the night to repair shattered bodies.
He said: "It was a battlefield. There were so many patients injured that we didn't know where to start."
Family doctors, surgeons and paramedics raced to the hospital to help. Mr Pinto said: "If it hadn't been for them, we could never have coped."
He added: "Since this is such a small community, it was inevitable that some of the staff knew the victims and recognised them as they washed away the dirt and blood.
"There were some nurses here who were even tending their own children. Unfortunately, one was quite a severe incident."
The Spanish victims of the bomb were youngsters visiting the area with their teachers. The hospital brought in interpreters to take phone calls from parents. One paramedic who ferried a teenage Spanish girl to hospital in Belfast said: "Her leg was torn to shreds and she just couldn't tell us where she was hurting most."
Four piped bands from the area were in Glasgow when the news came through. One member discovered his wife had died.
Dr Pinto added last night: "I want to appeal to these people and say what have they gained by doing this?
"It is their own people they are maiming. Let me not see this sort of thing again. It's dastardly."
Further Information
Publisher: THE MIRROR
Ref: TM/017
Published Date: 17-Aug-98
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