A MEDIC who was released from a Sri Lankan camp after getting caught up in the conflict says she has no regrets and would do it all again.
Damilvany Gnanakumar, of Hungerdown in Chingford, worked alongside doctors treating injured civilians in makeshift hospitals after getting caught up between bloody clashes between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels.
She said: “It all feels like it was a dream. I had no plans to go and I ended up staying 18 months. But I have no regrets and am proud of myself.”
The 25-year-old biomedical graduate, whose family came to Waltham Forest in 1994 as refugees, said she only visited the country on a six-month visa after the breakdown of her marriage, but after the war accelerated she felt compelled to help her fellow Tamil people.
She said: “People were being wounded and I thought I could not just leave them and walk away and leave them dying. There was a shortage of staff in hospitals and I had learnt first aid, so I stayed.
“But I didn't think I would survive. I thought, 'this is it'. But I am the same as everyone else and I accepted it.”
When the conflict worsened, the former Walthamstow School for Girls pupil said she was shocked to witness people suffering from injuries during the bombings, and see mothers watch their children die.
She said: “Every time you turned around there were dead bodies or wounded people. It was hard having to see a six-year-old having his leg and arm cut off. It was hard but I got used to it.
“There wasn't always time to bury bodies or say goodbye.”
Her concerned parents and two sisters and brother grew concerned for her safety and after she called them from a government-run camp where she was being detained, to say she was alive, they contacted the British government and made a media appeal for her release, which was secured last Saturday.
But despite the worry, Miss Gnanakumar, known as Vany, said she had no regrets because she had always wanted to volunteer abroad and hoped to study medicine so she could do it again as a doctor.
She said: “After the Tsunami I wanted to go to help but couldn't because of my studies, so I am really proud to have been there and helped people in a small way.”
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