Panic at PoSGH during earthquake

TERRIFIED citizens were taken to the Port of Spain general hospital yesterday in the aftermath of the earthquake which shook the country and other Caribbean islands, and were admitted for panic and asthma attacks.

Newsday reporters got a glimpse of the action as medical staff scrambled to find beds to tend to the droves of people rushing into the hospital. Medics were running through the halls of the emergency department tending to patients as quickly as they could. However, despite their best efforts, the volume of patients led to beds running out.

One family had to pick up their relative bodily and carry him into the emergency room. The frightened family screamed for doctors to assist, as their relative, whose name they did not wish to divulge, gasped for breath during an asthma attack.

The man was eventually given a bed and treated with a nebuliser.

Newsday was told when the earthquake hit, even nurses and doctors screamed in fear as the hospital was shaken to its foundation. The relative of a patient said, “A little bit again and the nurses and them would have run out the hospital and left us right there.

The nurses were screaming, hiding and panicking. There was one person there who stood in the middle of the halls and started praying out loud”

At about 5.31 pm yesterday the ground under every Trinidad and Tobagonian shook, causing damage and pandemonium nationwide. While many places incurred structural damage, up to press time there were no reports of any casualties or fatalities as a result of the quake.

In a brief conversation, Ceron Richards, head of the Prison Officers Association, said there were no reports of damage at the prison, and no major incidents occurred. Police Commissioner Gary Griffith told the nation via social media posts that the police were out in force to ensure the safety and security of citizens.