Gaza: many Palestinians victims of amputations due to Israeli strikes

The hospital in the town of Dar al-balah is welcoming dozens of amputees after being seriously injured in Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians admitted to hospital must make a crucial choice between death or amputation.

54,500 war wounded had to make such heartbreaking choices, like Shaimaa Nabahin, a 22-year-old student who had been hospitalized for about a week, her ankle having been partially severed during an airstrike, when doctors told her she was in pain. of blood poisoning.

Nawal Jaber, a 54-year-old mother, had both legs amputated after being injured on November 22 when an Israeli shelling hit her neighbor’s empty house and damaged her own in the Bureij camp.

Her grandson was killed, and her husband and son were injured in the attack. “I wish I could meet the needs of my children, but I can’t,” said the mother of eight. children, their faces bathed in tears

Before the conflict, Shaimaa Nabahin had started earning a degree in international relations in Gaza and planned to travel to Germany to continue her studies. She said it was now imperative to leave Gaza to survive, “to go and save what’s left of me, to fit a prosthesis and live my life normally.” Shaimaa chose to maximize her chances of survival and agreed to have her leg amputated 15 cm below the knee.

The decision upended the lives of this ambitious university student and countless others among the estimated 54,500 war wounded who had to make such heartbreaking choices.

“My whole life has changed,” the young woman said from her bed at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah. “If I want to take a step or go somewhere, I need help.

The young woman was seriously injured on November 13 when an Israeli airstrike hit her neighbor’s house in Bureij, an urban refugee camp in central Gaza. His ankle and arteries in his leg were partially severed by a piece of cement from a wall of the family home that was blown out by the explosion of the neighboring house. Shaimaa Nabahin was the only one in her family to be injured, while several of her neighbors were killed.

She was quickly rushed to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where doctors managed to suture her leg and stop the bleeding.

The World Health Organization and the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip say amputations have become commonplace during Israel’s war with Hamas, now in its 12th week, but they were unable to provide precise figures.

At Deir al-Balah hospital, dozens of recent amputees were in various stages of treatment and recovery.

Experts believe that in some cases the limbs could have been saved with proper treatment. But after weeks of a blistering air and ground offensive by Israel, only nine of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still operational.

Overcrowded and under-resourced hospitals

They are grossly overcrowded, offer limited treatment and lack basic equipment to perform operations. Many wounded are unable to reach remaining hospitals, blocked by Israeli bombing and ground fighting. Gaza War Amputees – Among Gaza’s tens of thousands of wounded, amputees face difficult choices.

The lives of most Palestinians have changed as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas. At Deir al-Balah hospital, dozens of people who have had parts of their bodies amputated, particularly their legs, are in different stages of recovery and adaptation. The conflict did not take their lives, but it radically changed them.

Sean Casey, a WHO official who recently visited several hospitals in the enclave, said the dire shortage of vascular surgeons in Gaza increased the likelihood of amputations. These blood vessel doctors are the first to respond to trauma and are best placed to save limbs. But in other cases, he added, the severity of the injuries means that some limbs cannot be saved and must be removed as soon as possible, otherwise those affected risk dying from infections. Muhammad Al-Hajj, director of public relations at Al-Aqsa Hospital, said the hospital had witnessed complex injuries resulting in amputation, often among women and children.

Al Hajj said dozens of people had amputations “due to the severity of the injury, and there were people whose problem got worse and who were amputated due to a lack of necessary resources “.

Health system on its last legs

Even before the war, Gaza’s health system was overwhelmed after years of conflict and a border blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt in response to Hamas’ takeover of the territory in 2007.

But after the operation, Nabahin said she received little care or attention from doctors, who were dealing with a growing number of seriously injured people as medical supplies dwindled. . A few days later, his leg turned a dark color.

“They found there was shrapnel that was poisoning my blood,” she said. The amputation went well, but Nabahin said she still suffered from severe pain and She couldn’t sleep without sedatives. Jourdel François, an orthopedic specialist at Doctors Without Borders, said the risk of post-operative infections is high in the war-stricken Gaza Strip.

Jourdel François, who worked in November at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, said hygiene was poor, mainly due to limited access to the hospital. water and the general chaos that reigned in a hospital overwhelmed with patients and hosting thousands of displaced civilians. He remembers a young girl whose legs had been crushed and who urgently needed a double amputation, but they were unable to have her operated on that day due to the large number of other critical injuries. She died later that night, according to François, probably from septicemia, that is to say blood poisoning by bacteria.

“There are 50 (wounded) people arriving every day, you have to make a choice,” he told The Associated Press by telephone after leaving Gaza, at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. , many new amputees have

In 2018 and 2019, thousands of people were injured by Israeli army fire during weekly protests against the blockade led by Hamas, and more than 120 of them had limbs amputated.

At the time, Gaza lacked the services, including advanced prosthetics, needed to return to activities after amputation. The people who join the ranks of amputees today face almost impossible conditions.

Some 85% of the 2.3 million inhabitants have been displaced, crowded into tents, schools transformed into shelters or relatives’ homes. Water, food and other basic necessities are scarce.