In one corner, a young woman vomits over the side of her cot. At the opposite end of the tent, a boy cries as his head wound is treated.
In the middle of the chaos, a doctor with braces on her teeth and sandals on her feet tends to an ugly gaping wound in a man's right arm.

With just three years of practical experience, Estiningtyas Wardani - Tyas for short - finds herself in charge of the busy Indonesian Red Cross field hospital treating a constant parade of victims from the earthquake on 27 May 2006.

The Red Cross began treating the victims from a makeshift facility on the day of the earthquake, which has killed nearly 5,700 people and injured more than 10,000 others.
Three days after the disaster, it had built a complex of tents in Bantul town, at the centre of the rural district hardest-hit by the quake.

One sturdy, light-green tent serves as the emergency room where Wardani, 30, leans over the man with the wounded arm.

A pink purse hangs over the back of the Indonesian Red Cross vest she wears as she and a Red Cross volunteer stitch his arm. They are seemingly oblivious to the commotion around them.

All six beds in the tent are full.

A middle-aged woman sits on one cot as her head is wrapped in a bandage, while white-uniformed nurses dress a wound in the arm of an older patient who is later taken out on a stretcher.

The woman with the head wound is quickly replaced by another woman in need.
"It hurts here," the new arrival says before screaming as she is rolled over. Her backside and ankle were injured when her house collapsed. She is soon on her way with a bandage around her ankle.

Five-year-old Pupung, who cried while his head wound was treated, leaves in the arms of his mother with a fresh bandage above his bruised right eye.

"The service is good here," says the boy's mother, Iin.

The boy received initial treatment on Saturday but with so many others needing urgent care that day, he had to return for further treatment, she explains.

Her son was hurt when their house collapsed. The boy's father now cannot walk.

The other patients have also left, leaving the emergency room momentarily quiet.

The young woman who vomited seems to be asleep now. A Red Cross volunteer who has come from Bali quickly sweeps up the mess.

Soon a motorcycle drops off a new patient at the entrance to the tent. She has a bandage on her chin, and shuffles inside.

Wardani is still concentrating on the man with the wounded arm, undisturbed by laughter coming from the nearby dispensary tent.

Finally, she stands up, just in time to meet a group of South Koreans interested in offering assistance. She then has a discussion on her mobile phone about medical supplies, before taking a short break.

The man she treated had been hit by a piece of falling wood, she explains. He had received initial care on Saturday but the wound was not healing.

"We cleaned it and stitched again," says Wardani, her hair tied in a bun.

The Red Cross facility is one of at least four field hospitals that Indonesian or foreign agencies have opened or will soon open in Bantul. But Wardani says her patient load is increasing.

On Tuesday, the facility treated 163 walk-in cases while about 70 other patients needed to stay overnight. On Monday, only 120 patients came seeking treatment, Wardani says.
"On the first and second days we had a lot of broken bones and open wounds," she says.
A native of Banjarnegara, northwest of Yogyakarta, the main city in the quake zone, Wardani joined the Red Cross six months ago after her first job at a community medical clinic.

She has help from a team of 10 doctors, including specialists, as well as many volunteers and about 20 paramedics.

Wardani usually works a 12-hour day, starting at 6:00 am, but she seems unfazed by the unrelenting pace.

"I'm still not tired," she says with a smile, flashing her braces.

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