“A very sick baby being treated with a ventilator. After the baby died, what were we supposed to do with the machine? There's no way to clean it and get rid of that resistant bacteria. When we transferred the machine for use by another baby, we didn't even have tubing to replace, so there was always a very high chance of spreading the disease. So either the baby dies because there's no ventilator, or the baby dies because of the infection. Your options were tragically limited.”
The piece, titled “’Everyone had a single bullet to the head, chest or artery’: Testimonies of female doctors from Gaza” (See link for full interviews in Hebrew), presents first-hand accounts from three volunteer female physicians who served in Gaza during the war: Dr. Mimy Sayed, Dr. Thalia Pachiyannakis, and Dr. Aman Odeh. They are among 99 medical professionals who signed a letter to U.S. President Biden and Vice President Harris, calling attention to the collapse of Gaza’s health infrastructure and the suffering of civilians, particularly children.
Each doctor worked in different specialties and stayed in Gaza for different periods: pediatric care, gynecology, and emergency medicine. They describe operating in extreme scarcity, lacking anesthesia, sterile conditions, clean water, gloves, antibiotics, or even basic sanitation. They recount surgery in 40 °C heat, treating newborns with only one functional incubator, and witnessing fatalities due to infection and lack of equipment. One baby had to be left to die because there was only one respirator and no alternative device.
They emphasize how most casualties they treated were children, often hit by a single bullet to the head, chest, or artery — injuries leaving little external sign but devastating internal damage. The doctors also reflect on the lasting emotional trauma they carry, and their conviction that their role is not just to heal but to bear witness and document atrocities that might otherwise stay hidden.