*Guest blog by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) delegate Kathy Mueller. Kathy, originally from London, Ontario, is currently in Japan.
“The earthquake saved my life.”
It’s a strange thing to hear, coming from the chief nurse in the maternity ward at the Red Cross hospital in Ishinomaki. Thirty-nine year old Yukie Masaka was at her seaside home when the 9-magnitude quake shook it to its core. As a nurse for many years, and having experienced several earthquakes, Yukie realized this one was serious. She knew there would be a lot of people hurt.
Her nursing instinct and desire to help others kicked in. Yukie hopped into her car and sped to the hospital. “If I had left five minutes later, I would be dead,” she tells me. When Yukie was able to return to her home, she found it in ruins; everything was gone. She now lives with friends.
But Yukie does not focus on what she has lost. She instead directs her energy to helping the thousands of extra patients who now pass the threshold of the hospital in which she works. Even though dogged tired after working a 22 hour shift, she agrees to take a few minutes to talk with me. She tells me that time flies very quickly; there is so much to do. Not only does she oversee patient care in the maternity ward, she is also in charge of all the administrative duties. They have enough medication to assist new mothers, what they need is more staff. “Our staff are so exhausted,” she says quietly.
And yet, amid the exhaustion, death and destruction, there is new life, and Yukie and her staff are witness to it. There have been 60 babies born at this hospital since the earthquake and tsunami, many by mothers who lost loved ones on March 11th. It’s the strength of these mothers that gets Yukie through her 22 hour shifts.
“I am amazed by the mothers’ almost primal need to protect their child,” says Yukie. “Their will to protect their unborn child is so strong. That gives me a lot of strength.”
*Click here to read more of Kathy's blog diaries from Japan.
