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“We arrived in Gaza and were immediately confronted by huge numbers of people crammed into the streets. You can hear the bombing and you can see the fear in people’s faces.
We immediately got to work at the hospital. We treated a large number of patients for burns and trauma injuries, mostly people who’d been injured in explosions. There were a lot of children. I’d never seen so many burns patients in one place.
Some children were malnourished and it was clear many were not eating properly. With post-operative care, it’s vital that patients have a good diet to assist with tissue healing, but due to food shortages that just wasn’t happening.
We were seeing around 180 patients every day. We didn’t have the capacity to take everybody into the operating theatres – some procedures had to be carried out on the ward.
As an anaesthetist, one of my roles was to improve pain management. Due to shortages of medical supplies, there have been a lot of incidents during this conflict when people have been operated on without anaesthetics. It’s inconceivable that this has happened, but it has.
Some patients stick in your mind. There was a nine-yearold girl who’d been injured when her home was bombed and lost part of her jaw. She and her mother were the only survivors from their family. I changed her dressing every few days and gave her antibiotic treatment. One day, she
nd gave me a hug and asked if she’d ever look normal. I didn’t have an answer for her. Reconstructive surgery would really help her, but nothing like that is on offer in Gaza.
The situation in Gaza is getting worse and people’s medical needs are growing. The fact that there are people there who have had to undergo medical procedures without anaesthesia is barbaric. It’s an inhumane situation.
Yet, despite the carnage and the horror, the MSF hospital was an oasis of calm. I was so impressed by the Gazan staff, by their resilience. Many had lost family members and were living in tents, but they were still there every day, helping people.
The work MSF is doing in Gaza is needed now more than ever.”