Dr Sara Al Saqqa, a surgeon at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital said she had treated so many injured people, mostly children, that she even lost count and thinks it’s only a matter of time before she faces a similar fate.
The entire medical complex has been turned into a trauma hospital, and it has become home for some who seek refuge in its halls after their homes were destroyed in Israeli Airstrikes, she also said.
The harrowing scene has been worsened by an Israeli blockade that has barred food, water, electricity and other essentials from entering the densely populated city of 2.3 million people, she said. Half of the Palestinians living in Gaza are younger than 19.
“According to the hospital manager of Shifa, Dr Shuja Rauf, he said that “we are running out of everything in a matter of hours,” Al Saqqa said. “So no one knows how much can we handle.”
Al Saqqa said that among the children treated at Al-Shifa, she had seen head injuries, abdomens punctured by sharp objects and injuries from blunt force trauma and falls.
“All kinds of injuries,”. It’s insane.” She said.
For every 20 patients the hospital treats, Al Saqqa estimated, only five may survive — though they still might not make it depending on how extensive or complex their injuries are, she said.
She described treating two babies, one 8 months old and the other 9 months old, who were pulled from the rubble of a building.
“They’re anonymous,” she said. No one knows “who they are or what family they are belonging to.”
Al Saqqa described Gaza as a “big huge cage” with a massive population trapped beneath relentless bombs.
Asked about her safety, she said: “It’s just a matter of time, and it will be our turn soon.”
