As of midnight tonight, our hospital operations are going to come to a halt.
As of midnight tonight, our hospital operations are going to come to a halt.
As of midnight tonight, our hospital operations are going to come to a halt. During the day today, we moved out as many people as we could from the hospital.
I am in a room with my fellow medical frontline workers, injured myself. Nearby is a female medical frontline worker who was wounded by shrapnel piercing her chest while on duty.
Her father, who had been continuously coming near the hospital for her sake, had only a few days earlier been torn apart and killed by a shell that exploded in the bunker.
It fell upon me to bear the sorrow of telling this news to her, who was in my unit. As she clung to me and cried, saying she wanted her father, I begged her to accept me as her father. A few days ago, she was the one treating my injuries. Today, she lies wounded beside me, fighting for her life alongside me.
Next to me, under my medical care, Colonel Keerthi, who was wounded together with me, is struggling to hold on to life until the oxygen concentrator machine fails — he has a chest injury that cannot survive without oxygen.
My fellow medic Isaivanan, who came through my entire medical life alongside me, now has only one leg. His three children were blown apart and killed, and with a fracture in the thigh bone of his remaining good leg, he keeps asking for permission to bite the capsule.
Not fully understanding that tomorrow he may indeed bite the capsule, I keep pleading with him to endure. Senior medical frontline worker Lolo lies in a semi-conscious state, not realizing that today’s second attempt at abdominal surgery has failed.
The military spokesperson Ilanthiraiyan was taken away from the hospital with severe abdominal stitches after it became clear and was openly stated that he was not going to survive.
Doctor Varadaraja stood outside with no attachment to his own life, with no thought of saving himself. After his final hospital was attacked for the third time, and the bodies of those killed lay piled up, he stood there helpless and unable to function.
At the entrance to our hospital, bodies lay unremoved on both sides like borders.
After replacing the saline drips for those who were unable to rise following surgery, we left at midnight.
— Tharmaratnam Varman
Translation by Hari
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