“There were no cardiac surgeons at the hospital, so it fell to me to lead the operation. We opened up his chest, from left to right, and found a small hole in his aorta. We repaired it, closed him up, and stitched up the wounds. Whether or not he makes it is now a matter of chance. I pray he doesn’t pick up an infection.”
Gaza Hospital Diary Summary
British surgeon Khaled Dawas documented his two-week volunteer mission at Al-Aqsa Hospital, Gaza’s last functioning medical facility in the central strip. The hospital, designed for 140 patients, now houses hundreds in filthy, overcrowded conditions without adequate painkillers or antibiotics.
Dawas treated severe cases including late-stage cancers, gunshot wounds from drone attacks, and children with 19th-century diseases like empyema. He performed emergency heart surgery on a 19-year-old and operated on three children injured in a school bombing. He writes about patients who died during his stay – Basam, a colon cancer patient, and 11-year-old Fatima who lost too much blood.
The diary reveals the devastating impact of war on medical care, with families providing basic nursing care and a 19-year-old morgue worker becoming desensitized to mutilated corpses.