Summary (see link for full interview):
Dr. Irtaza Khan, a Pakistani-American pulmonologist from Chicago, spent three weeks at Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunus, Gaza, in October 2025 — arriving as the first volunteer medical team after the October ceasefire. The article recounts what he found: a healthcare system devastated by repeated military strikes, with most imaging equipment destroyed, chronic shortages of medicine and supplies, and a single remaining pulmonologist — himself.
Doctors were forced to triage between patients knowing some would die while waiting. Patients refused life-saving treatment because hospitalization meant their dependent children would starve. A toddler pulled from rubble underwent five major surgeries yet still couldn’t be kept in the ICU.
Despite the ceasefire, daily explosions continued. Aid deliveries remained a fraction of agreed quantities, and Israel blocked critically ill patients from leaving for treatment abroad.
Since returning, Dr. Khan has spoken publicly across the US and Pakistan, carrying the amana — the trust — placed on him by a hospital worker who spent the night on stairs waiting to ask him to tell the world what he witnessed.