King's student reports on tsunami disaster
30 Dec 2004, PR 82/04 King's medical student Bala Karunakaran was in northern Sri Lanka gaining work experience at the Killinochchi General Hospital when the region was hit by the recent tsunami.In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Bala writes: "I have never seen such chaos. People were rushed to our hospital in buses and HGVs. Our mortuaries are overflowing with bodies. Most of the dead are women and children. We have many young children in our wards that are yet to be identified."
"By the end of last night, we had more than 700 casualties and 120 dead bodies in our hospital alone. The hospital had run out of space and resources and we had to divert minor injuries to a local school to have medical students attend them."
Notes to editors King's College London
King's College London is the fourth oldest university in England with more than 13,700 undergraduates and nearly 5,600 graduate students in nine schools of study based at five London campuses. It is a member of the Russell Group: a coalition of the UK's major research-based universities. The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recently received an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, international relations, medicine, nursing and the sciences, and has played major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of health care professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres – more than any other university.
King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with income from grants and contracts of more than £114 million, and has anannual income of more than £369 million.
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