A reflection by Dr Stuart Philip

Tuesday 22 February 2011 started as a beautiful day in Christchurch, New Zealand and having been a medical student there, I knew the city well.

My first job of the day was a cup of my favourite locally roasted Hummingbird coffee in a café on Victoria Street. By 1 pm, the sky was filled with dust and the café was gone.

I grew up in Hawke’s Bay on the east coast of the North Island. It was the site of New Zealand’s largest earthquake, which killed 256 people, in 1931.

Each earthquake is different, some are slow and rolling, while others are sharp and violent. The earthquake that day in Christchurch was the most violent that I have ever felt.

“When the earthquake hit it was chaos for a minute or so followed by a disconcerting calm.”

The conference centre we were in was evacuated and 300 of us found ourselves out on the street, surrounded by dust and the distant echoes of sirens. A number of Mater nursing staff were there along with Dr David Winkle, Dr Roger Watson and myself.

Our hotel opposite was badly damaged and we were quite literally left with the clothes on our back.

I immediately set off for the nearest police station thinking that it might be a place where we could be dispatched to help. It was obvious from the surrounding destruction and “walking wounded” that there would be major casualties. Eventually about 12 surgeons were dispatched in small groups to various sites. I was sent to the Pyne Gould Guinness building.

The next few hours passed extremely quickly and were spent obtaining medical supplies, setting up a makeshift field trauma room and establishing a triage system. The Urban Search and Rescue teams did not arrive for 12 hours so, in the great Australasian spirit, we made do as best we could.

Twelve people were saved from the building that afternoon.

Incredibly, some were extricated with not a scratch on them (and in one case, still clutching an unbroken coffee mug that she had been drinking from at the time of the quake!).

Others had horrendous injuries including fractures and amputations. As was widely reported, one gentleman had to have both legs amputated on site to save his life. There was never such a welcome sight as an anaethetist arriving to help with a backpack full of anaesthetic medications.

Of course, not everyone could be saved. I know that we all did all we could for those people and hopefully made a difference in keeping them comfortable. It is the people that couldn’t be saved that I think about the most.

I have wondered many times why I helped out doing what I could but have come to the realisation that it isn’t really a choice that you consciously make. Knowing that my wife and children were safe back in Brisbane certainly helped but I think that all of us have it in ourselves to help out those in need. This was certainly demonstrated in Queensland this summer with the floods and cyclone.

We still have many friends who live in Christchurch; a number of them lost their houses and places of work. At the last count more than 900 buildings had been destroyed and thousands more damaged. Many areas remain without sewerage with residents having to rely on portaloos dotted down the middle of the street—a chilly proposition as winter arrives!

However, Cantabrians are extremely resolute and I have no doubt that they will come back better and stronger. However, I suspect that it is a long hard road ahead.

Editor’s note: Just days after Dr Philip submitted this editorial, Christchurch was again hit by a chain of tremors measuring 5.5 and 6.0 magnitude.