Diary of a doctor in Gaza Healing wounds & alleviating suffering in the midst of great challenges

Published on 2024-02-08 | Archived on 2024-02-08

Pain and suffering are the most prominent title of the situation in hospitals in the Gaza Strip, which are suffering from overcrowding and lack of equipment, medical supplies and fuel, but doctors in the Gaza Strip continue day and night to heal wounds and ease the pain of the injured. Dr Abd al-Rahman al-Tayeb, who works at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, is one of these doctors.

Our correspondent in Gaza, Ziad Taleb, travelled with Dr Abdel Rahman al-Tayeb inside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to learn about the great efforts made by Dr Abdel Rahman and his colleagues to help the wounded and injured Gazans who are crowding the hospitals amid a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies.

Dr Abdel Rahman says he has been working long hours at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital since the early days of the war. "We used to work up to 20 hours a day, depending on the number of injuries," he said. Before the war, we used to receive an average of 200-300 cases a day. Nowadays, the number of people we receive is 4-5 times what we used to receive. In some cases, it's up to 10 times."

Dr Abdul Rahman says the lack of medical supplies forces doctors at the hospital to make do with what they have, adding: "We rely more on clinical assessment than on laboratory results to diagnose cases. For example, today we don't have blood testing supplies, so we have to rely on clinical assessment. The CT scanner was out of service for many days, so we had to rely on clinical assessment and the symptoms of the patient."

But the situation inside the hospital doesn't stop there. Abdel Rahman says that due to the intense pressure, large number of cases and limited resources, doctors resort to using non-sterile instruments for simple medical procedures, despite the danger and health consequences of this, "We resorted to simple surgical interventions without using local anaesthesia. There is a great scarcity of treatment for chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. We are resorting to using less efficient treatments to fill the gap."

Work pressure prevents family visits
Abdulrahman says that work pressure makes him forget about his family, "but when we go to eat or go to bed, we remember family and home. But the biggest issue is that many days it is not possible to communicate with them, because there is no way to communicate. I take advantage of the presence of some sick and wounded neighbours to ask about my family."

I want to go home

The majority of the injured in the Gaza Strip are women and children. Abdel Rahman spoke to a child with a broken leg. The child says he and his father were standing in the street near their home when a rocket hit, injuring them. The child is receiving treatment at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and is recovering but is anxious to return home even though he is not sure if the house is still standing.

Doctors were not spared either
Doctors have not been spared
Although doctors are the ones who treat patients, they have not been spared the risk of injury during this war.Samir Abu Najeh, a radiologist working at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, was shot in the eye while returning home to visit his family, "I was away from my family for 10 days because of work," he said: "I was away from my family for 10 days due to work, and when I returned home to Al-Ahram Tower, the tower was hit by a missile, which led to the situation I am in, thank God for everything."