I spent 43 days in Gaza’s now-destroyed hospitals
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/5/3/i-spent-43-days-in-gazas-now-destroyed-hospitals-my-mind-is-still-there
Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta spent 43 says trying to save lives in Gaza
When we could no longer perform surgeries in the north, I decided to head south, hoping that operating rooms there would still be functioning. I walked for six hours and saw unimaginably horrific scenes of mass destruction, corpses and body parts.
I cannot comprehend the horror of the moment we live in. A genocide is taking place live on TV – a genocide in which many states, politicians and respected institutions are complicit.
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On October 17, I was in between surgeries when I heard the screeching of an approaching missile followed by the loud, cacophonous sound of impact.
As I stepped into the corridor, I saw the hospital courtyard lit up in an inferno; ambulances and cars were on fire. One man was bleeding profusely from his neck, and I had to apply pressure until the ambulance arrived to take us to al-Shifa. Later, as we walked through the courtyard, I saw bodies and body parts everywhere including a small arm, which clearly belonged to a child.
Despite its connection to Britain and reassurances from the bishop in England that it would be spared from destruction, al-Ahli Hospital was hit.
This incident served as a litmus test for what was to come: Israel’s full war on Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure.
After al-Ahli was hit, and no one was held to account, the domino pieces began to fall rapidly. Hospitals were targeted one after the other. It became obvious that the attacks were systemic.
We quickly ran out of morphine and ketamine and resorted in desperation to using intravenous paracetamol as pain relief as there was nothing else available. Victims of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, including tens of thousands of children, underwent extremely painful procedures without anaesthetic; it felt criminal to perform these procedures. It’s indescribably heart-wrenching to hear children scream from pain that you are causing, even when you know you are only trying to save their lives.
One little girl in particular, only nine years old, had her body covered in shrapnel wounds. I had performed surgery on her, but the type of injury meant that the wounds needed disinfection every 36 hours to keep her alive. I spoke to her dad and explained that her temperature was rising and the infection was spreading to her blood and killing her slowly. Without morphine or ketamine, the only option was to disinfect the many wounds she had every 36 hours without sufficient pain relief. She was screaming in pain, her father was crying, and I was in tears too.
I treated many injuries caused by chemical bombs, which turn the human body into Swiss cheese. Chemical particles continue to burn through the skin for as long as they can access oxygen, reigniting when exposed to oxygen again. The first little boy, 13, I treated in the current onslaught on Gaza had such chemical burns down to the bone. Early on I had to come to terms with the fact that, due to the conditions we were in and the injuries we were dealing with, survival rates among the wounded would be very low.
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After more than 200 days of this genocide, I keep thinking “surely we’ve seen it all”, and then a new atrocity is uncovered. Hospitals have been turned into rubble. They became sites of mass graves of Palestinians murdered in cold blood by Israeli forces, hands tied behind their backs. The heinous crimes committed at al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals were streamed live to our screens, but the world watched silently. Israel has faced no accountability. Countries, and academic institutions, continue to support and defend Israel. Many continue to provide it with weapons.
Palestinians inspect the damage outside Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital after the Israeli military withdrew from the complex housing the hospital on April 1, 2024
Israel has dismantled all parts of life in Gaza: destroying bakeries, schools, mosques and churches; blocking humanitarian aid and restricting electricity. It has done so to ensure that Gaza becomes uninhabitable even after a ceasefire. When Israeli soldiers first broke into al-Shifa Hospital they destroyed medical equipment and machinery to ensure that the hospital could not function. Now, little remains of the hospital itself.
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