Nepal's hospitals stretched to their limit

Every night for more than a week ambulance sirens and helicopter engines have disrupted the streets of Nepal's capital city bringing in earthquake victims from far flung areas of rural Nepal.

At one of the two main hospitals in Kathmandu, Bir Hospital, the medical staff are stretched to their limits. Doctors work 24-hour shifts, nurses are on 12-hour shifts. Foreign volunteers from various countries assist the local Nepalese and provide a helping hand in the overall functioning of the hospitals during these tough times. They are everywhere from the trauma centre to the help-desk at the entrance and even supporting doctors during surgeries.

In Chautara, 80km from Kathmandu - a four-hour drive - at the centre of the worst affected Sindhupalchowk district, people wait at hastily pitched tents of aid organisations to be evacuated to Kathmandu. Eight-year-old Sabila Dahal is brought in from rural Nepal's Kavre district. She has a skull fracture and lies next to a teddy bear inside Bir Hospital as her grandfather comforts her. She is one of thousands of earthquake victims. The number of dead in Nepal's devastating earthquake of April 25 has crossed 7,000. Only now have the casualties started coming in from rural areas.