In a year plagued by natural disasters, the local community has
stepped up in providing relief efforts for hurricane victims in the
southern United States, but now a local physician will be
spearheading a campaign for relief half-way around the world.

Dr. M. Javed Akhtar, an ears, nose and throat doctor in
Bradford, left Sunday morning to head a national campaign providing
aid to the victims of the Pakistani earthquake that hit with a 7.6
magnitude Oct. 8.

Akhtar is the chairman of the Disaster Relief Committee for the
Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America. He was also a
past president of the APPNA in 2000. The APPNA, a non-profit,
charitable organization based in Chicago, Ill., is made up of about
2,000 members from across the United States. The APPNA also
provides continued educational activities for its members, as well
as fundraising events and charitable work.

“I’ll be personally supervising that the equipment is
distributed correctly,” Akhtar said.

Akhtar said they’ll be taking over X-ray machines and orthopedic
and spinal equipment. He also said they will be bringing external
fixation and fracture equipment. A plastic surgeon will be going
with them, and this will be the fourth or fifth one that the APPNA
has sent to Pakistan, according to Akhtar.

He also said there will be doctors with a variety of
specialties, such as psychological trauma, pediatrics and other
fields of expertise. He said 16 experts will be going along with
him to Pakistan, and he will be in charge of the distribution of
equipment and personnel on site.

Akhtar said a lot of people have spinal injuries as well and so
they’re bringing over wheelchairs. He said he also plans to help
with rehabilitation in a hospital in the affected area and will be
working with facial reconstruction and trauma cases when
needed.

“As soon as we go there, we will look at what we have already
and try to upgrade the existing facilities and field hospitals,”
Akhtar said.

Akhtar said they hope to bring state of the art equipment to the
facilities and enhance the equipment already there.

He said they will be landing in Islamabad and set up a
distribution and nerve center there. Then in a day or two, he will
make a trip to the NWFP and Kashmir area to assess the needs of
field hospitals in that location to find out what additional
equipment they need.

Just after the earthquake hit Pakistan, Akhtar said the APPNA
sent blankets and tents immediately to help house the victims. They
also sent antibiotics and medication. Akhtar said the APPNA have
been sending medical aid and personnel ever since Oct. 8. He also
said they have raised $65,000 at the national level for the
Pakistani earthquake aid.

Akhtar said the first team that went to Pakistan had taken
pictures while they were there.

“At first, it was really, really bad,” Akhtar said. “Many roads
were inaccessible. In some places, you could only get supplies by
helicopter.”

Akhtar said 3 million are homeless with almost 80,000 dead and
more than 100,000 severely injured.

“There’s a lot of children and young people buried in the
rubble,” Akhtar said.

He said this was bad for those buried with injuries since gang
green may develop and, with weather getting colder, frost bite may
set in. Akhtar said there are almost 5,000 amputees from the
earthquake because people were in the rubble for two to three days
before being found and gang green set in. He said that people with
spinal injuries or lost limbs will need long-term
rehabilitation.

“Some roads have now been open,” Akhtar said. “But now, they’re
finding more people severely injured or dead.”

Akhtar said there was already a MASH unit from the U.S. Army
that moved from Germany to the Kashmir area.

He said he doesn’t have any immediate family in the affected
area, but he has some friends near the affected area.

Akhtar said he will be returning to Bradford Nov. 13.

“Some stay two or three weeks,” Akhtar said about medical
personnel from the APPNA that have been making trips to Pakistan.
“They’re scattered out. They keep rotating every week.”

Akhtar said the APPNA helped co-sponsor an orphanage for the
children that were left orphans by an Iranian earthquake a few
years back. The association also co-sponsored, along with the Give
Life Foundation of California, a clinic for the victims of the
tsunami this past year as well as providing medical equipment for
hospitals in Indonesia. The association also gave medical supplies
and aid in Biloxi, La., and New Orleans, La., for the victims of
Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

Akhtar said he had talked to some friends and neighbors in
Bradford for local support for the Pakistani earthquake. He also
talked to Lee Beckes, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in
Bradford, and Beckes had Akhtar give a talk to his congregation to
ask for support. He had talked about the trouble they were having
airlifting supplies in Pakistan as well as a “total lack of
everything.”

Akhtar also said he called U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., and
the office of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

“I got a very good response from them,” Akhtar said.

Akhtar said the estimated total cost of damage and needs in
Pakistan from the earthquake is about $5 billion. He said he was
trying to get the U.S. Senate and Congress to increase their aid
package for the earthquake victims to $1 billion.

“We had very good local help,” Akhtar said. “We appreciate … the
local community support they have given.”

Akhtar said if someone would like to donate money to the APPNA
for the earthquake victims, they can visit their Web site at
www.appna.org and donate whatever they can. He said every dollar
given will go to the relief effort.

Akhtar also encourages people to call U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum,
R-Pa., Specter and Peterson and encourage them to push the aid
package through the House and Senate.