“Moving is torture”: The life of amputees after the earthquakes in Türkiye | Türkiye and Syria earthquake

ADIYAMAN, Turkey – When Adele Yetkin went to enroll her child in school recently, she looked anxiously at the three steps she would have to climb to enter the building. Her prosthetic leg never worked properly, tormenting her with its rigidity and heavy weight.

Yetkin hoisted herself up the first step, then the second, but on the third, the prosthetic broke, coming loose and leaving her stranded until someone came and helped her.

“Now I'm afraid to go anywhere in case this happens again, and I always need someone with me,” she told Al Jazeera.

The 41-year-old is now mostly confined to the two-room prefabricated container she shares with her husband and three remaining children in the southeastern Turkish city of Adiyaman. One year ago, her eldest son was killed in the devastating earthquake that also destroyed her home, causing the amputation of one of her and her husband's legs.

More than 50,000 people are believed to have died in southern Turkey as a result of earthquakes measuring 7.8 and 7.5 on February 6, 2023. The death toll in Adiyaman – with a population of 300,000 – reached more than 8,000 while about 17,500 others were injured.

The United Nations estimates that up to 70% of the approximately 100,000 people injured by earthquakes in Turkey suffer from disability as a result.

Life is hard enough for earthquake survivors in Türkiye. It is still more difficult for amputees.

The two-room container that the Yetkin family now shares in Adıyaman. They use water bottles to weigh down the tarp to protect it from the elements [Alaeddin Cogal/Al Jazeera]
Hanging over the body of her dead son

In central Adiyaman, the clock tower still stands at 4:17 a.m., the time the first quake struck.

At that moment, the Yetkin family woke up to the violent tremor and tried to flee from their apartment on the first floor of a three-story building. As they gathered the children and reached the hallway leading to the front door, the building collapsed on top of them.

They were dazed and trapped under the rubble, and saw that the debris was supporting the roof about a meter (three feet) above where they were lying. As they called out to each other, 18-year-old Joseph did not respond. He was lying on top of Adel, having thrown himself on top of his mother to protect her when the building collapsed. She felt his breath, but there was nothing.

Adila's left leg and one of her arms were trapped under the rubble, while her dead son's body was hanging above her.

Hassan, her husband, was folded in a prayer-like position, one of his legs crushed by a heavy door. Mohammed, who was 15, suffered a broken leg, while the youngest children, Ennis, who was 13, and Prat, who was 7, suffered less serious injuries.

The family screamed and screamed for help while they were trapped and in pain. But several hours passed before Hassan's nephew was able to open an opening in the rubble through which they could communicate and pass water.

Two rescue teams tried to get them out during the first two days, but they failed because they were unable to remove the debris stuck to the ceiling. On the third day, a team of miners dug under the tunnel to rescue them. By the time they were finally released, the family had been trapped for nearly 40 hours.

“[My family’s] The psychology was really bad [under the rubble]I was trying to tell them – it will pass, we will be okay. Adila said: “But after I left, I lost my mind.” “I don't remember anything after that for several days.”

There was no chance of saving Hassan's left leg, and it had to be amputated above the knee. His right leg was broken but was saved. Mohammed's badly broken leg was also saved.

Doctors struggled to save Adila's left leg. She was airlifted to a hospital in Ankara, but gangrene had set in. Doctors first had to amputate it above the knee, and then cut it again, almost to the hip, when it was clear gangrene was still present.

The prosthetic leg Adele uses has only two settings – one for standing upright and one for sitting [Al Jazeera]
“I just thank God we're alive.”

Months of recovery and physical therapy followed, and both Hassan and Adila were fitted with prosthetic limbs paid for by the state, although relatives and friends helped them pay 40,000 Turkish liras ($1,307) for additional features.

But Adila said that because there was so little left in her left thigh, it made it difficult to use her prosthesis.

“Even though they use silicone, it doesn't work well,” she said.

Her prosthetic leg has two positions – straight for standing upright and bent for sitting. Most moving becomes an ordeal. A better prosthetic leg can help, but the couple must wait until the state provides one.

“We don’t know when that might happen,” Hassan said. “It might be after five years.”

The 46-year-old is still getting used to his prosthetic, but it's working well so far – he can move around with the help of a crutch.

“I thank God we are alive,” he said.

However, the former baker is no longer able to work, and the family is destitute – relying on the help of relatives, friends and neighbors as the cost of living rises.

“The earthquake has already affected the lives of people with disabilities, with most of them remaining stuck in their homes or containers,” Huseyin Er, head of local humanitarian NGO Gokosaji, told Al Jazeera.

Adile Yetkin, 41, and her husband Hasan Yetkin, 46, at their home in Adıyaman. Their eldest son was killed and their house destroyed in last year's earthquakes [Alaeddin Cogal/Al Jazeera]
“The whole city needs psychological support.”

About 70 percent of Adiyaman's buildings were either destroyed or damaged as a result of the earthquakes, in addition to widespread damage to infrastructure, roads and sidewalks.

The extent of the remaining damage makes it difficult for people with disabilities to move around the city, Er explained, adding that Adıyaman's many container sites lack proper toilet facilities, beds or support services designated for people with disabilities.

The government plans to provide a container site designed for people with disabilities in Adıyaman, but it has not yet been delivered.

The Yetkin family felt they would not get the support and facilities they needed at the state-provided container site, so they lived in a single container on the street donated by a neighbor.

“Relatives can help us here – they built a toilet with their own efforts. They put a seat in the toilet [for the shower] “They are trying to adapt it to suit our needs,” Adila said.

The family received individual payments of 10,000 liras ($327) and then 15,000 liras ($490) from Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD). But not living in the container sites means they are not eligible for a monthly subsidy of 3,000 lira ($98) on payment cards provided by the Disaster and Emergency Management Department.

Gokkusagi provided the Yetkin family with some financial support, food and hygiene products.

The NGO – which collaborates with international groups such as Concern Worldwide and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as the European Union – works to identify the needs of the city's most vulnerable people to provide assistance and support, and refers them to state departments.

“Our NGO also helps people with disabilities by providing mobile toilets – for example, for people who use wheelchairs – to make their lives easier,” said Kadir Boztepe, Human Resources and Finance Officer.

“but [our support] “It is not enough to meet Adıyaman’s needs – we are just one NGO and what we can do is limited.”

Er said humanitarian organizations still do not know how many people lost limbs in Adıyaman due to the earthquake, but they believe the number is large.

“There are still people outside Adiyaman in hospital receiving treatment for their missing limbs,” he said.

“[And] “What I see in the long term is that the whole city needs psychological support.”

“All I want is to take care of my children,” Adele stands in her makeshift kitchen in the container she now lives in with her husband and three surviving children. [Alaeddin Cogal/Al Jazeera]
“It will take time”

For the Yetkin family, Joseph's death was like another amputation.

“February 6 reminds us of our loss – we miss our son so much, and it is very difficult. Only those who experienced it know how bad it was,” Adila said. “He was 18 and we loved and cared for him so much.”

They avoid professional psychological support in favor of support from relatives and turn to the Qur’an.

“We understood that everything is in vain – it's not worth getting angry, it's not worth fighting. So our connections are stronger now. We also have better relationships with relatives,” she said.

“[In the future]All I want is to take care of my children and cook food for them properly.

While they rented their apartment in the destroyed building they were living in, they owned a damaged property elsewhere in the city and should therefore be eligible for a house built by the state-subsidized Housing Development Administration (TOKI). However, there is still no information on when this will be available.

By January this year, only 46,000 housing units had been delivered across Turkey, according to data from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, out of 319,000 new housing units that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to deliver by February 2024.

Meanwhile, Hassan and Adila still feel phantom pain in their missing limbs.

“It still hurts. The doctor said you have to remove it from your brain because there is no medicine or pills for it,” Adila said. “It will take some time.”

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