'Nothing Like I've Seen Before': Doctor Shares Gut-Churning Details About Wayanad Landslide Victims

Wayanad News: With the death toll from the recent landslides in Kerala's Wayanad district rising to 177, a government doctor cited by news agency PTI has shared a gut-churning account indicating the devastation caused by the natural calamity. Posted at a local hospital to perform post-mortem examinations, she said she was met with sights she had never encountered before in her years-long career.

"I'm accustomed to performing post-mortems, but nothing could have prepared me for this," she said, her voice laced with emotion. "The body was so severely crushed, I couldn't bear to look twice. It was like nothing I've ever seen before," she said, speaking of one of the landslide victims she had to perform an autopsy on. "I've seen many bodies in my career, but this was different. The impact was so severe, it was as if the person had been pulverised," the unnamed doctor was quoted as saying by PTI.

WAYANAD LANDSLIDE: DOCTOR RECALLS CRUSHED BODIES

Recalling details about the initial bodies that arrived for autopsy, she added, "I told myself that I could not handle this, when I saw the first body. It was so crushed, and the second one was that of a one-year-old child. Seeing it, I was sure that I could not continue doing it (post-mortem) and wanted to run away to a hospital where we could give care to survivors. But on that day, I had no option, and we performed 18 post-mortems."

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Several forensic surgeons from various parts of the state were rushed to assist the doctor and her teammates after bodies kept pouring in non-stop, as per the account published by PTI. "There were eight tables for conducting post-mortems, and by evening, we had so many forensic surgeons that each table had one forensic surgeon at it. By 7.30 pm, we were able to complete as many as 53 post-mortems," she stated.

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By the end of day one of the tragedy, the team of forensic surgeons completed the autopsies of over 93 bodies. "The situation is so pathetic. We have never seen bodies in such conditions before. Even seasoned doctors found it difficult to handle bodies in this state," the doctor said.

(With inputs from PTI)