Views of a volunteer doctor in Gaza: A woman survived rockets but was killed by a caesarean section

Thousands of families were saddened by the deaths of mothers and infants due to the genocidal war in Gaza (Reuters)

It is the story of an ordinary woman from stricken Gaza who was about to give birth to her fifth child via Caesarean section, in a hospital in Rafah that was heard by the sounds of bombing and explosions from all sides.

She arrived late and was suffering from labor pains unlike the previous ones, and they quickly admitted her to the Mother and Child Hospital, as she was supposed to come earlier, as she had previously given birth to her four children by cesarean sections, in order to conduct the necessary analyzes and to enable the doctors to prepare what their hands could reach. It has equipment and medicines to deal with such difficult and dangerous cases.

Everyone mobilized their efforts to save the life of the woman, who was in a very critical health condition. Her uterus and bladder had ruptured, and she began to suffer from serious health complications.

Due to the lack of necessary equipment and medications.

tears

“We tried to transfer her to the European Hospital in Khan Yunis to provide better medical equipment, but as we tried to transfer her, her condition worsened,” tells us Dr. Zuhair Lahna, a Moroccan doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, who was able - along with other volunteer doctors - to reach the southern Gaza Strip. .

He added that while they were making every effort to transfer her to the European Hospital, Mrs. Rabbo found herself an oppressed martyr.

“I will never forget the image of the grieving husband shedding burning tears when he learned of the death of his companion, who left him in these harsh, devastating circumstances, leaving him to continue the journey alone with his children,” says Dr. Zuhair.

In this open prison, which witnesses daily massacres in which hundreds are martyred, such tragic stories are lost in the crowd of daily killings. They are not broadcast on television, and there are no numbers counting the number of women who were martyred due to the lack of medicines or basic medical care during childbirth specifically.

Dr. Zuhair Lahna (first on the right) accompanied by volunteer doctors at the Rafah crossing (Al Jazeera)

Six hours

In the past, the average number of births at the Mother and Child Hospital in Rafah was about 20 natural births per day and 4 cesarean sections, but after the outbreak of the Gaza Holocaust, and due to factors of shock and fear, the rate of premature births increased to 80 natural births per day and 20 cesarean sections, in an atmosphere There are almost no basic medicines and medical devices.

Zuhair Lahana - who spent several days in the remaining functioning hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip - tells us that women who come to the hospital only have about 6 hours to leave after giving birth, in order to leave the place to other women.

“Where does a newly born woman leave?” is a question whose answer is supposed to be normal, as the woman - all over the world - goes with her newborn, supported and honored, in a procession led by the joyful parents to a house where everyone is waiting for the new guest to appear, welcoming the mother’s safety.

Dr. Zuhair Lahna inside Rafah Hospital (Al Jazeera)

But in the Gaza Strip, the answer is different. Israel demolished homes on top of their owners, killed more than 30,000, and injured and amputated tens of thousands, while hundreds of thousands of neighborhood residents were forced to flee toward the south.

There is no longer a procession of family that receives the mother and her newborn, just as there is no longer a house that embraces the new guest, and in light of the siege and daily massacres, there is no longer any food that can satisfy the mother’s hunger, let alone food allocated to delegations of well-wishers and those celebrating the post-partum rituals and the Aqeeqah. According to the customs and traditions of Gazan families in the past.

Dr. Zuhair says that a woman who has recently given birth leaves the hospital shortly after giving birth and heads towards a dilapidated house, or a tent made of meager materials, set up in an environment where the conditions for normal human living are lacking, and the absence of healthy food affects her health and then on her newborn, who lacks his mother’s milk. Starved by the occupation.

This is in normal cases, but for caesarean sections, the woman can spend 24 hours in the hospital, then leave for her tent.

Doctors usually advise a newly born mother to eat foods rich in fiber and iron, and to eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, so that she will be empowered to care for and breastfeed her newborn.

They also advise her to drink plenty of water to rid the body of toxins and prevent constipation and dehydration.

The death rate among infants in Gaza has increased due to malnutrition (Reuters)

suffering

But no one told the mothers of Gaza what they should do after they give birth. They have no food, no drinking water to quench their thirst, no house to protect them from the bitter cold of winter, no sewage system to protect them from widespread diseases and epidemics, and because of hunger, they have no breast milk to silence them with. The hunger of their infants who tasted the pain of hunger before they could scream their first cry.

Because the conditions are conditions of genocide that has been going on for months, endless bombardment, and systematic starvation, successive shock waves have increased the rates of miscarriages and preeclampsia, and the numbers of premature births have increased significantly, and many of them died while inside incubators that were cut off from electricity due to the insistence of the occupation and its allies. To prevent fuel from reaching the remaining health centers.

Those who did not die from shells or missiles are affected by diseases related to malnutrition and the collapse of the health and medical services system.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recently warned of an imminent explosion in the number of child deaths due to malnutrition, and said that death rates in the northern Gaza Strip are three times higher than those recorded in the south.

In addition to hunger, the UN agency says that there is an increasing risk of the spread of infectious diseases, as 9 out of every 10 children under the age of five (about 220,000 children) have become ill during the past weeks.

Note that this data was recorded last January, and there is no doubt that the situation today is much worse, especially in the besieged north.

Harsh atmosphere

Dr. Zuhair says that people in the south of the besieged Strip live in a completely unhealthy atmosphere, with high levels of pollution, overflowing sewage, and numerous stagnant ponds, which are ideal conditions for the proliferation of germs and the spread of epidemics.

Municipal affairs departments are completely unable to deal with these disasters due to the occupation’s destruction of infrastructure and its targeting of everyone who moves, so that no one can transport garbage - for example - to the place designated for burning it as before.

Because occupation missiles are lurking everywhere.

Wherever you turn in Rafah and the southern regions, you find tents housing displaced people. These are simple tents that shelter people and barely cover them, and lack the basic conditions for human dignity, which puts families in a difficult and embarrassing situation.

Hundreds of thousands were displaced to Rafah, escaping the occupation's missiles, which were intended to not distinguish between a tent and a building, destroying everything they found in their path.

Rockets crush bones, cause limb amputations, and burns that peel skin and disintegrate flesh, forcing doctors to perform operations under harsh conditions not taught in medical colleges, in which anesthesia and sterilization drugs are almost non-existent, Dr. Zuhair explains here.

Our speaker continues that most of the infections that reach health authorities are very serious, as they often occur in vital areas of the body.

Such as: the head or chest, which are injuries that usually require advanced medical equipment and specialized medical teams, but in health services institutions operating under bombardment, lacking basic medicines and necessary equipment, and displaced people fleeing death living inside them, martyrdom is the fate of the majority of cases, and their number is very large.

Fears

Disastrous conditions that people in Rafah are experiencing - Dr. Zuhair confirms - in light of the lack of security, scarcity of food resources, and constant fears of bombing that could strike anywhere.

How difficult it is to live the details of your daily life while remembering every second that you may be killed at any time by a missile that a soldier there enjoys launching as a gift to his daughter on her birthday, or to celebrate the wedding anniversary of his beloved.

In light of the growing occupation threats to invade Rafah and bomb it from the sky and the ground, the picture is getting darker in the eyes of the Gazans, who assured the Moroccan doctor that they no longer hope for any kind of support from the Arab or Western regimes alike, and all their hope is linked to God alone, that He will expedite With relief, and that people do not become accustomed to the scenes of their killing, starvation, and slaughter morning and evening.

The people of Gaza love life as long as they can, and they cling to their land. They hope to return to their destroyed homes and rebuild them, and they only require that they remain alive.

This Gazan woman was martyred during a caesarean section in an environment where the occupation had destroyed her health system, but God willing, the doctors would save her fetus before her martyrdom, so that he could continue the journey with his father and four brothers, and later tell his mother’s story, and perhaps help rebuild his house, and rebuild Gaza again. With whom will they survive extermination?

Source: Al Jazeera