Dr Sayed Abo Bakar Rasooli, Health Emergencies Officer, and Incident Manager for Herat …
30 October 2023 – I was resting at home, as I do on weekends, when I felt the powerful earthquake that struck Afghanistan’s Herat province a little after 11:00 on 7 October 2023. It was so unusually strong that everyone in my family instantly jumped up and rushed outside.
I immediately called the regional hospital in Herat city, the largest in the whole western region, where most of the injured would usually be taken for treatment in an emergency. The hospital authorities told me that a few injured people had already been admitted.
I quickly checked if we had enough medicine in our WHO stock and told the stockkeeper to supply the regional hospital. Then I rushed there without even getting out of my home clothes, leaving my family out on the street for safety. As a health professional and humanitarian, I had to choose between family and patients. I chose the latter as they needed me more at that moment.
At the hospital, I started to receive formal and informal reports that Zindajan district, about 45 km away, had been completely destroyed. By the end of that first day on which the earthquake struck, more than 500 wounded had arrived at the regional hospital, and over 120 dead bodies had been