Long waits for medical care get longer in China

'They just keep coming'
Every few minutes, ambulances rushed up to the 800-bed facility, carrying people wrapped in quilts, their faces swollen and crusted with blood. Teams of doctors and nurses immediately swabbed their wounds with alcohol and murmured diagnoses.

"They just keep coming, group after group of people who are hurt," said Dr. Deng Xiaoling, examining a crying 11-year-old girl, her back, head and legs gashed after escaping from the ruins of her school in Hanwang.

"Under normal circumstances, the children shouldn't have complications," said Deng. "But now the weather is very hot, they aren't eating, their immune system is weak and this could lead to complications or problems that we don't want to face."

In the emergency room driveway, a handwritten list was tacked to a notice board with name after name of the injured. "These numbers are not complete," it said.

Nearby, makeshift shelters fashioned from plastic sheets were crammed. Patients, their limbs wrapped in thick gauze bandages, were hooked up to intravenous tubes. Relatives surrounded them and volunteers offered porridge, cakes and sweets.

On Monday, Jiazhi was on the second floor of his school in Libing, a village outside the city of Shifang, when the quake struck. Two chemical plants in Shifang collapsed and more than 600 people were buried.

'Hasn't talked since the operation'
Jiazhi was among the last to leave his school before it crumbled. Knocked over by debris, he was helped up by a classmate and stumbled out of the building, his scalp gouged by chunks of concrete.

"His flesh was ripped from his arms. I could see his bones," said the boy's father, who had rushed to the school when the ground began to shake.

On Thursday, Jiazhi lay in a hospital bed, his left arm amputated just below his elbow, his right arm cut off below the shoulder. He stared silently ahead, his cut and swollen face expressionless.

His mother, Lin Yiping, said her son was at the top of his class and always went to school early to sweep the floors. He loved riding his bicycle and his toys, imaginative creations he carved himself, were a favorite among his friends.

"He hasn't talked since the operation," said Lin, sobbing. "He's only cried once since the earthquake, when they told him he no longer had his arms."

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