A European surgeon with the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross describes what he is seen in 11 days at a Gaza hospital.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A British surgeon with the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross lately crossed into Gaza. NPR’s Aya Batrawy spoke with him about what he has seen as hospitals overflow with folks injured by Israeli airstrikes. And a warning – this report contains graphic descriptions of their accidents.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Dr. Tom Potokar tells me he is seen a catastrophic state of affairs since coming into Gaza on October 27 the size of which he is by no means seen earlier than.
TOM POTOKAR: I have been to Gaza many, many instances over time. I’ve by no means seen a state of affairs even remotely as unhealthy as it’s at the moment.
BATRAWY: The British plastic, reconstructive and burns surgeon leads what the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross says is a battle surgical procedure workforce in Gaza. Numerous the instances he is dealing with have been girls and youngsters with very advanced accidents and burns.
POTOKAR: We’re seeing simply poly-trauma – so a number of accidents in the identical affected person – you realize, legs, arms, chest, stomach, head – all sophisticated and plenty of them by burns on high of this – simply an unmanageable variety of sufferers.
BATRAWY: An unmanageable variety of sufferers. I requested him what that appears like.
POTOKAR: I believe the phrases to greatest describe it could simply be overwhelming, to be trustworthy.
BATRAWY: The Palestinian Well being Ministry in Gaza says greater than 10,300 Palestinians have died from the battle since October 7, and 26,000 folks have been wounded. It says amongst them are greater than 4,200 youngsters killed, practically all from Israeli airstrikes and bombardment. Israel says it is focusing on Hamas, which launched an assault on southern Israel that killed 1,400 folks, in keeping with Israeli officers. Some 240 folks have been taken hostage, and Israeli leaders say troops are aiming to rescue these hostages and eradicate Hamas. In Gaza, the dying toll retains climbing, with strikes on ambulances, hospitals, bread strains, U.N.-run shelters and 1000’s of residence buildings. Israel acknowledges many of those assaults and blames Hamas fighters for utilizing tunnels underneath civilian infrastructure. The heads of 18 U.N. businesses say these locations should be protected and have reiterated requires a cease-fire. Palestinians say the vast majority of victims are civilians, and Potokar takes a minute to explain how advanced even one in all these instances is.
POTOKAR: I’ve a affected person now who’s on the desk that I must go and function now. You realize, he misplaced 20 members of his household. He is the one one left. He has buddies right here. He would not have any household right here. He is a younger man. He has 40% burns, of which half of them are deep burns. He has large shrapnel wounds to the chest, to the foot, to the buttock. He is septic, so he is already received an infection. You realize, he is in a essential situation. Even giving him an anesthetic is extraordinarily harmful due to his basic total situation. But when we do not function to scrub up a few of these wounds, then, you realize, the an infection would not get managed. You realize, that is a really typical case.
BATRAWY: He additionally operated on a toddler who was underneath the rubble for 2 days. The well being ministry in Gaza says practically 1,400 youngsters are lacking underneath the rubble.
POTOKAR: A case of a kid – once more, misplaced all his household, pulled out of the rubble after two days with in depth burn accidents. He is slowly getting slightly bit higher.
BATRAWY: In one other case, he needed to inform the mother and father of a kid with extreme burns that their son would not survive.
POTOKAR: And sadly, he died a few days later. You realize, that is the truth of what is occurring.
BATRAWY: And for a lot of who could survive this battle, their long-term prognosis is not good both, he says.
POTOKAR: There’s plenty of sufferers that can endure important, long-term incapacity as a result of a mixture of, you realize, amputations, important delicate tissue accidents, delayed burn contractures.
BATRAWY: Solely 17 out of Gaza’s 35 hospitals are nonetheless operational. The Palestinian well being Ministry says the remainder have been broken by Israeli bombs or have run out of gas for turbines. Potokar has been working at Gaza’s European hospital in Khan Yunis, one of many few nonetheless operational in southern Gaza that may obtain a few of the restricted assist trickling in from Egypt. I requested the surgeon how he and his workforce are conserving secure even because the ICRC communicates with Israel and has helped within the launch of 4 Israeli hostages from Gaza.
POTOKAR: I am undecided we’re. I imply, you realize, each single night time, there’s bombardments. There was a number of explosions simply exterior the hospital final night time earlier than we left and once more this morning.
BATRAWY: Regardless of this, the physician says he is received no rapid plans to depart Gaza.
POTOKAR: Not for the time being, no, as a result of there isn’t any one else getting in for the time being. And, you realize, the wants are too nice. Yeah. I must go. OK. Yeah. Bye.
BATRAWY: The younger man with no surviving household and burns throughout practically half his physique was on the working desk, ready for Dr. Potokar. Aya Batrawy, NPR Information.
Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its ultimate type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could fluctuate. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
