THANN LITE, MYANMAR — Something hard and heavy slammed into Ko Kyaw Win's leg as he clung to the top of a coconut tree, fighting for his life against hurricane-force winds and a surging torrent strong enough to bend steel.
The object swirling in the 20-foot swell smashed a silver dollar-sized hole in the fisherman's right shin. At the time, it was the least of his worries.
Two friends who had tried to swim with him to a small boat drowned. He couldn't make it into the storm-tossed craft himself, and figured that fate would eventually sweep him away too.
Tropical Cyclone Nargis destroyed at least 400 houses in his village near the southwestern town of Labutta, Kyaw Win said, adding softly, "Only 100 people survived."
Somehow, the sinewy 45-year-old managed to hug the treetop long enough to remain among the living, surviving on coconut milk for five days.
But after beating those already bad odds, Kyaw Win now fears he faces a new fight for his life: An infection is taking hold in his festering leg wound, and no medical supplies remain in this village in the Irrawaddy River delta.
Kyaw Win is one of thousands of survivors across southern Myanmar still awaiting medical care a week and a half after the cyclone hammered the area.
To make matters worse, forecasters are predicting monsoon rains, and though they aren't expected to be as destructive as Nargis, another major storm wouldn't improve survivors' chances of getting the care they desperately need.
Since the cyclone hit Myanmar, also known as Burma, on May 2-3, no doctor has visited the seven villages where local nurse U Tin Hling is the only trained medical worker. He ran out of medicine, bandages and the rest of his meager supplies days ago.
The first food aid from the military for about 3,000 people did not arrive until Tuesday. It consisted of 900 eggs, two 20-pound sacks of potatoes, 200 tins of sardines and packets of energy drink powder.
"We have no idea why more aid hasn't come," Abbott U De Thar Ni, head of a monastery sheltering scores of survivors, said with a resigned smile. "It must be our karma. But we need much more help."
Fisherman Mg Min Zaw, who lost his wife, their young child and his mother to the cyclone, somehow managed to survive the collapse of the family's house. A traditional doctor treated his broken arm with a paste made of ground leaves and a splint crafted from two wooden rulers and gauze, which is now filthy.
