Earthquake: Respite ward helps elderly to cope

War veteran Russell Gibson, 87, in the respite ward in Princess Margaret Hospital in Christchurch. The ward was set up to cater for vulnerable people affected by the Canterbury earthquake. Photo / Alan Gibson

Russell Gibson was used to hearing shells exploding during the war but he knew he would be all right - because it was the ones you didn't hear that could be deadly.

The 87-year-old has likened the unpredictability of his wartime experiences to Canterbury's monster earthquake and the constant aftershocks that have rattled him and other residents for the past 13 days.

Mr Gibson's wife, Margaret, died eight years ago so he was home alone, like thousands of others, when the quake struck.

Many of them came through the tremor with their houses intact but were left feeling traumatised, vulnerable and alone in the days that followed, leading to the creation of a special respite ward at Princess Margaret hospital in Cashmere.

Mr Gibson told the Herald he was woken by the "roar" of the quake and thought he was back in the war.

"Everything just shook like mad and the bed lifted two feet off the ground."

The aftershocks left him nervous, particularly because of their unpredictability.

"It was a bit like in the war when you could hear a shell going off. If you heard it you knew it was going past. It was the ones you didn't hear [you had to worry about]."

He served in Italy and North Africa during World War II and joked he that would be incarcerated in a resthome for old soldiers when he got out of hospital.

His home was intact apart from some 100-year-old ornaments that fell from a shelf and shattered, but alone there he developed health problems and had to call an ambulance.

Mr Gibson said he was pleased to have the support of the nurses and doctors in what would have been an even more traumatic experience alone.

His family live outside Christchurch, in Wanaka and Lower Hutt.

Charge nurse Liz Brenen said the respite ward was an office before the earthquake but was set up as a fully functioning ward for patients in just eight hours.

Some of the patients' homes had suffered quake damage while others were living with relatives who were dealing with devastation of their own, she said.

"Older people have been traumatised by the earthquake, like us all, but for a lot of them the trauma has exacerbated their medical problems."

Anxiety, confusion and lack of sleep have all been common complaints. "A lot of them have settled down now [after the fright]".

The ward could hold 20 people and had 18 at its fullest. Yesterday they stopped taking new admissions and would begin to transfer patients out.

Ms Brenen said she was one of only two local nurses working in the respite ward; the rest came from nine District Health Boards from around the country.

Staff told Health Minister Tony Ryall, who visited the ward yesterday, it had been a great learning curve but the ward had worked well.