Bab al-Hawa Hospital in northern Syria near the Turkish border, serves Syria’s wounded from what was once an immigration and customs building.
This Australian report describes the situation at the hospital.
Here’s an excerpt:
“The hospital, which reeked of blood, on average, treats around 40 patients a day, mainly as a result from shelling and bombings in the Idlib province. Eighty per cent of patients are civilians – the majority children.”
“The World Health Organization estimates there are now half a million Syrians with war injuries…”
Syria’s Assault on Doctors / New York Review of Books, 3 November 2013
“Almost two-thirds of the nation’s hospitals have been badly damaged or destroyed, 92 percent of the ambulances in affected areas are out of service, and the vast majority of the nation’s doctors, nurses and other health workers have fled or have been killed. The few health care facilities that remain generally have no fuel, electricity or water…”
See the article at the San Francisco Gate.
Among the grim anecdotes of the civil war playing out in Syria comes perhaps the most sobering report of all – that bored snipers are playing a “death game” and their targets include children and pregnant women. The story was reported on CBS News.
From the Huffington Post UK, 30 October 2013, a look at how the deliberate targeting of medical professionals in Syria, the departure of many medical professionals, and destruction of more than half the nation’s medical facilities will affect the ability to rebuild a health infrastructure in Syria.
“Doctors report that demolished hospitals and humanitarian blockades have left some Syrians to suffer, awake, through amputations and Caesarean sections…As international attention to Syria wanes, all of these horrors are still happening….”
Please read this important editorial from Samer Attar .
Here’s an ABC News story from 26 October 2013 regarding medical care in Syria, and the lack of facilities, even electricity.
Syrian-American orthopedic surgeon Dr. Samer Attar, talking about his medical work near Aleppo:
“There were people who requested amputations because they couldn’t live any more with a leg with exposed bone and pus just pouring out of the wound. A number of the amputations were on children…”
The Syrian Medical Centre, also known as Dar al-Istshfaa, is a refuge for those wounded in Syria requiring long-term care and rehabilitation. The centre, which has been running for more than a year, was founded by the Paris-based Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations (UOSSM), a coalition of 14 independent medical and relief organisations.
This National Public Radio story (21 October 2013) talks about the psychological and physical impact of the war in Syria on its children.
See the story, and listen to a stream of the radio broadcast.
Palmyra Relief 