I’m a physician who just came back from Gaza. The humanitarian crisis there is unimaginable.
I just returned from a medical mission trip to Gaza at one of the last partially functioning hospitals. I treated a child who was shot in the head, a young woman who had severe burns and numerous shrapnel wounds over her body, and another child with a sniper wound in his belly. Hundreds of others had amputations and faces that are entirely disfigured.
Not all of the patients I saw survived. Those who did will endure lifelong disabilities and unspeakable lifelong trauma. The hospital I worked at, which houses 240 beds, is now hosting more than 30,000 displaced Palestinians seeking refuge in a supposedly safe space. But there is no safe space in Gaza. The hospital lacked medical equipment, tools and basic items like gloves, antibiotics, soap and hand sanitizer. Infections are rampant. As an anesthesiologist from Toledo, I was appalled to hear that many patients were having surgery and amputations without anesthesia.
So I went to provide medical care to the families and children seeking medical treatment amid a collapsed healthcare infrastructure. I am in awe of the heroic medical workers of Gaza who have been working nonstop, with meager supplies and food, unpaid, and exhausted.
I urge my fellow empathic medical colleagues to speak out against these sustained attacks on civilians of Gaza. After all, we went into the medical field to do no harm and to care for fellow humans.
The decades-long blockade on Gaza has made it nearly impossible to build a sustainable healthcare infrastructure and discriminatory policies which weakens critical care, mental health, women’s health, disability, chronic disease management, surgery, and public health.
Dr. ABDALRAHMAN ALGENDY
Ottawa Hills
Dr. Algendy traveled with the mission of the Palestinian American Medical Association and was in Gaza Feb. 19 to March 4. Dr. Algendy is a former vice chairman of the department of anesthesiology at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center and is an attending physician at ProMedica.
First Published March 21, 2024, 4:00 a.m.
