White Island – update by New Zealand Herald..- distressing content!

WHITE ISLAND ERUPTION – AT A GLANCE
* Six people confirmed dead, autopsies and formal identification continues today
* Nine missing or presumed dead, with eight thought to be on island
* 30 in hospital – 8 in Christchurch, 7 in Middlemore Hospital, 6 in Waikato, 4 in Hutt Valley, 2 in Auckland City, 2 in Tauranga Base Hospital and 1 in Wellington
* One injured Australian due to fly from Wellington to an Australian hospital overnight
* More Australian patients expected to be flown to hospitals across Tasman in coming days
* 47 people were on or near the island when the volcano erupted – 24 Australians, nine from the US, five Kiwis, four Germans, two Chinese, two from UK and one from Malaysia

DISTRESSING CONTENT WARNING

An emergency doctor treating burn patients injured in the Whakaari/White Island eruption has described horrific scenes at Waikato Hospital.

“It’s one of the most challenging things to look at because you know the patients are in so much pain and will be fighting for their life for the next two or three weeks and even then they could die,” John Bonning, president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, told the Herald.Advertisement Advertise with NZME.

His comments come as New Zealand authorities import 120 square metres of skin from the United States and Australia to help treat the victims’ terrible burn injuries.

The amount of skin needed equates to about 60 donors – in New Zealand only five to 10 people donate skin each year.

As surgeons continue to work around the clock, 29 patients remain under intensive hospital care at New Zealand’s four burns unit at Middlemore, Waikato, Hutt Valley and Christchurch. One other patient was transferred from Wellington to Australia tonight.

Bonning said as he wheeled patients into Waikato Hospital after Monday’s eruption he could smell the sulphur coming from their clothing and saw “bits of dead skin” and “broken ash” peeling off their bodies.

“It was awful, just horrific. Saying it was like a war zone would not be an understatement.”