West Libya city overwhelmed by casualties - MSF

Fri Apr 15, 2011 11:21pm GMT

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* Misrata doctors "overwhelmed with casualties" - MSF

* African migrants living in "miserable conditions"

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

SFAX, Tunisia, April 15 (Reuters) - Doctors in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata have released patients early to deal with new wounded from fighting because of capacity problems, a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) doctor said on Friday.

"They are overwhelmed with casualties," MSF Dr Morten Rostrup told Reuters by satellite phone.

"They got 30 new wounded yesterday and in order to take care of them they had to discharge some patients earlier than they wanted to ... to have capacity to treat the new wounded."

Rostrup spoke from on board an aid ship operated by the charity that departed Misrata on Friday for Tunisia carrying some 65 wounded -- some in critical condition -- from fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces.

The ship docked in the port of Libya's third largest city on Friday morning after failing to do so on Thursday due to heavy bombardment. Rostrup said he had visited Misrata hospitals to assess which patients he could bring back to Tunisia. Continued...

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