N.L. doctor recounts horrors of month working in Gaza hospital treating Palestinian patients
CBC
Dr. Elise Thorburn was shocked to see flattened buildings and vast tent encampments when she arrived in Gaza.
“The buildings are pancaked with floors on top of each other. Rafah doesn't exist anymore. It's just rebar sticking out of the ground,” the emergency medicine physician said while attending a pro-Palestine rally held in St. John's on Saturday.
Thorburn arrived home to Newfoundland and Labrador on Friday.
She spent a month working in Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital's emergency department in Gaza City through Glia, a medical solidarity organization that partnered with the World Health Organization to send medical delegations into Gaza.
She said it was hard to leave because of how dire the situation remains.
Despite Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas reaching a truce deal on Oct. 9, Israeli attacks in Gaza have been reported almost daily.
Thorburn said Israel is violating the ceasefire agreement.
“There is starvation. There are people living in tents, getting sick and suffering from various illnesses because of that,” she said. “The ceasefire is a ceasefire in name only.”
A shortage of food and medical supplies made treating patients at Al-Ahli difficult, said Thorburn.
According to a United Nations news release, Israel is still limiting aid brought into Gaza, and the hospital system remains fragile.
Al-Ahli also lost its emergency and reception department to Israeli strikes in April. Thorburn said it now operates out of tents.
“There's no mattresses on any of the bed frames,” she said. “Sometimes there's no gauze to wrap wounds with. There's no real analgesia to treat people in pain.”
The only way Thorburn could treat patients with severe burns was to fan them with pieces of cardboard, she said.
And she treated mostly children.
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