October 19 Glorietta Bombing -- Code Red

Justin M and I just got back from a lunch out in Jollibee at around 1:30pm. We were the ER Pediatric interns for the day and all we expected to see for the remainder of the shift was a bunch of sipuning kids, the worst perhaps, being one case of benign febrile convulsions. Our table was situated right in front of the ER entrance, so you could just imagine my horror when I saw the first batch of morbidities coming in droves.

A man in a wheelchair was holding a blood-drenched towel to his left eye...a woman was carried by a stretcher, unconscious and covered with matted blood...a pregnant woman was holding on to a panicking 10 year old, not even aware of the lacerations dripping with blood all over her face. Literally, tumaas lahat ng balahibo sa katawan ko..."Oh my god, What happened?", I asked Just while clinging to his arm at the same time. "Oh shit, may sumabog daw na bomba sa Glorietta.", we heard from the background.

Without a splitsecond's thought, I texted my family and friends who were working in Makati then dove into the slowly growing crowd of casualties, scrubbing them with plain NSS-soaked sponges, combing their head for injuries, placing their broken arms in a sling, while at the same time trying to calm them down by saying everything will be ok...even if I wasn't feeling ok myself.

One woman became temporarily insane...repeatedly saying for the next couple of hours, "Whatever you do, please, I don't want to be separated from my children.....Was there a bomb?...How did I get here?"

The one sight I'd never forget was a young woman, clothes tattered...black bra exposed...skin gray and covered with sand...arms rigidly raised above her head...right leg shattered...I was screaming in my head, "God, she's dead...she's dead!" while one nurse hastily covered her body with a blanket and shoved her bed to one corner of the room to make way for the other victims.

People were texting me and calling me the whole time, asking me, kamusta jan? All I could do was text them what was happening and provide isolated accounts of the cases I actually handled. Well, you know how I really was during that time? I was in shock. I was frightened, appalled, digusted... I was so scared to look at the patients on the stretchers because I might see someone I know. I wanted to run out of the ER and head for home. I never saw so much blood, pain, grief and evil in my entire life. I couldn't believe any person alive would do such a thing. I wanted to cry because I just felt sorry for everyone in that room...and because I knew it could have been me, or my loved ones and I know I wouldn't be able to take it if any of them would be taken from me in such an ugly way.

Someone texted me that there was a bomb threat in Makati Medical Center. I also heard from the news that Glorietta 4 was on fire. Tomorrow I'm going on duty, not sure if I would be seeing red again. All I can do now is pray for peace in our world, and strength and courage for me, my friends and co-workers so we'd continue to do what we have vowed to do, the day we decided to be doctors.