Desperation: Doctors are pushed beyond the limits in Pakistan. “The preparations could not come fast enough. As some doctors scrambled to lug out heavy operating tables and lights, others attended to the first victims to arrive, including students from an adjacent elementary school “” two dead, the other three severely injured and crying for their parents.

During those first terrible hours, doctors recalled, the boy who needed the oxygen tube died. One in five arriving victims required amputations “” from fingers and toes to entire limbs. The cases came so fast that doctors could not follow procedure and consult with family members about the emotional and physical aftereffects of the surgery.”