Video Infoblog: American Pediatrician Who Worked in Gaza Hospital Recalls Horrors of Israel's War

 

 

Transcript

0:00

we spend the rest of the hour with an

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American Doctor Who just spent two weeks

0:03

in central Gaza Dr CA Jelani is a

0:06

pediatrician who volunteered in the AL

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AKA Hospital emergency room as part of a

0:11

team of doctors with the International

0:13

Rescue committee where she's senior

0:15

technical adviser and leads their

0:17

emergency Health responses globally the

0:20

team included doctors from both IRC and

0:22

Medical Aid for Palestinians before she

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joins us we'll play some of Dr gilani's

0:28

voice notes that she recorded in Al aa's

0:31

hosp al- AA hospital's emergency room

0:33

and also at night in the compound

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housing the emergency medical

0:40

team we're in the resuscitation room at

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Alexa hospital it's mass casualty with

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the site of the mass casualty was a

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school of the five casualties for our

0:54

children so this was he was injured in

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the first day of the war and now we

1:00

82 and he's waiting I'm so

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sorry you can hear the you can hear the

1:11

air strikes coming in now

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it's it's about 2:

1:17

a.m. and this is the sound of drones

1:20

right outside my window and

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also overhead

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flying um War airplanes I

1:28

believe I can't sleep so I decided to do

1:32

this voice

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note um it's a very specific hellscape

1:38

that exists here in Gaza when you're

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cursed enough to hear the the words from

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a doctor that say whose body part is

1:45

that don't carry it through the halls I

1:47

don't want children seeing that and that

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is um a quote from one of my

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colleagues uh in the emergency room

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where we saw a leg being carried at a

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lower leg with the boot still on the

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socks still on and it was being carried

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through the emergency

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[Music]

2:15

room we've arrived here at Alexa

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Hospital emergency room and what I'm

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seeing here is children lying on the

2:22

ground um double amputation on one child

2:26

um and there are no beds available so

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people are literally just on the ground

2:32

um seeking treatment we've already had

2:35

three parents come up to us and ask uh

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they see the stethoscope and they ask

2:39

can you can you come see my child can

2:41

you come see my child and I'm waiting

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for the local doctors to come in to be

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able to guide us through what we need to

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do and do a Handover um there is one

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child that I'm looking at approximately

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8 years old at the lying on the ground

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um next to him is a woman in a

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wheelchair who's waiting to be seen um

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the one on the ground has uh bandages on

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bilateral lower extremities uh going all

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the way up and looks like he's been

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brought in overnight um we're hearing

3:12

right now that it was a terrible

3:13

terrible night because of the bombing in

3:15

alghazi uh where they people had been

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told to evacuate and then subsequently

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were bombed um there are definitely more

3:23

people here than yesterday and yesterday

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was very full so no beds available uh

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as I said people uh there's not really

3:32

room or space for us to breathe or think

3:36

um there's a gentleman here that's

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sobbing in front of me and being

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comforted by maybe his son maybe a

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stranger I don't know but he's an older

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gentleman with a bandage on his head

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who's just sitting and holding his head

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in his hands um

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crying uh and head hung low and then

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there's 1 2 3 4

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or six children in my line of sight

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right now from the corner that need

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medical attention

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urgently one of whom is um crying a

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little boy around 6 or seven years old

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wiping his tears I can't see the

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injuries uh

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clearly um but we'll get started to work

4:21

today to see how we can support and help

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them through this uh through their

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tragedy

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Rockets rockets and they're nearer than

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they were

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before that feels very very close you

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don't get to hear much whistle before it

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comes one morning we arrived to a nurse

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who was quietly sobbing in the corner

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his colleague had been killed the night

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before and he had tried to resuscitate

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him in the emergency

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room he is dignified in his grief I ask

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should we leave but instead he just just

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thanks us for our presence and asks us

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to see a few patients on his behalf he

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just could not face the grueling

5:07

work and the patience outside the room

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right

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now I

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felt rewarded if I could be helpful to

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this one person in this one moment as I

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was rounding about two later hours later

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I raise my head from a patient to see

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him again right back at

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work as if nothing had

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happened the next day we see a

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23-year-old patient with his lower leg

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blown off so badly it's disconnected

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from its upper leg

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floppy I looked down to plant my

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stethoscope on his chest only to find

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him still wearing his unwa or U NR wa

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vest as a staff

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member the only comfort I can provide

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him is to wipe the dried blood off his

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face to moisten his dry

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lips as he yearns for some water quietly

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lifting his neck for a little

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more I quieten his fear with a wet

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washcloth to his forehead and some

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Whispers of sweetness of calm none of

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these interventions are

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morphine he died on the floor of a Gaza

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emergency room with little more than my

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hand in his hand and a washcloth to his

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forehead those were voic notes recorded

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by Dr Sima jalani a senior emergency

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Health technical adviser and

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pediatrician who traveled to Gaza to

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volunteer in the alaka hospital

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emergency room as part of a team of

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doctors from the IRC and Medical Aid for

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Palestinians Dr galani previously worked

6:45

in Gaza and the West Bank in 2005 and

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2015 she's also a freelance journalist

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who was nominated for a Peabody Award

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for her 2006 radio documentary Israel

6:55

and Palestine the human cost of the

6:58

occupation she joins us now from

7:00

Brussels Dr SEMA jalani welcome back to

7:03

democracy now uh those were uh immensely

7:07

haunting uh notes voice notes that you

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made if you could talk about your

7:12

journey to Gaza in December uh where you

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went from how long you stayed and what

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you

7:20

witnessed we departed uh Cairo on uh

7:24

December 25th as part of an emergency

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medical team with the IRC and Medical

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Aid for palestin end in

7:30

Partnership um from Cairo uh we arrived

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uh through the Sinai which itself is a

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militarized Zone and then alaish and

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then the and then overnighted there and

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then following that uh completed the

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two-day journey to Rafa and crossed over

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uh into the Gaza Strip uh as a team um

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and later went to our guest house and

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the drive from the Rafa border all the

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way up to the guest house which should

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only have uh been a few kilometers maybe

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10 at most maybe seven took several

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hours two to three hours if I recall

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because um everyone was leaving and and

8:14

evacuating from the north um there were

8:17

people piled into cars Vans if they were

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lucky because fuel is such a precious

8:22

commodity there were babies falling

8:24

asleep there were pets and cats and dogs

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and families and blankets and mattresses

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any food items you can imagine um piled

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into donkey carts and people hanging off

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trying to evacuate it was a sea of human

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tragedy coming coming straight out of

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the Border um straighting straight into

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Southern Rafa um and it was quite a

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harrowing scene people that were

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Barefoot looking for shelter looking for

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garbage bags to put up tents looking for

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lumber um quite quite something and I've

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worked in several areas of conflict it

8:58

was quite stagnant

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ing Dr galani it must be just incredible

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for you to listen back to what you were

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saying so immediate as you whispered

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into your microphone whether you were

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holding the hand of a dying man or with

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a baby or in the barracks where you were

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staying the place where the doctor slept

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does that even exist

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anymore um our guest house was bombed

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short after I left um and I'm not sure

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of it's certainly not functional or able

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to be resided in um I don't know of how

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how it looks anymore but certainly it is

9:42

it it has been bombed

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yes and one of the people you describe

9:48

um helping on the floor of the hospital

9:51

and I was wondering if you can talk

9:52

about the significance of aloa and what

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does it mean for so many hospitals not

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to be fun functioning um had was wearing

10:02

an unra vest um it is the center of

10:07

controversy right now um it Netanyahu

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talks about getting rid of unro the way

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he talks about getting rid of Hamas talk

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about the central role unra plays

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whether we're talking about education

10:21

whether we're talking about

10:24

hospitals well I worked at Alexa

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Hospital which was one of the last

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remaining hital hospitals in the middle

10:30

part of Gaza or Central Gaza um it was a

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Lifeline Hospital providing critical

10:35

critical services and from the time that

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I arrived to the two weeks um I saw its

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decline I saw the fall of a hospital

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before my very own eyes and you know in

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war we're used to talking about the fall

10:47

of cities the fall of mosul or Saigon um

10:50

and suddenly we've normalized somehow

10:53

that the fall of alifa hospital and the

10:55

fall of Alexa Hospital we've normalized

10:56

the the fall and uh complete dismantling

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of healthcare infrastructure totally

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Paramount to saving lives not only in a

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war zone but in otherwise high

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functioning high-capacity Society um and

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and it's unconscionable that we continue

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to to to to watch this unfold um in

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terms of unera it has it provides

11:19

services throughout the region um I have

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worked in the West Bank and in Gaza I've

11:23

worked in Lebanon in chatila refugee

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camp in B Bari they provide schooling

11:29

Services I've been to their schools they

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provide Health Services um education and

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so it the the thought of defunding such

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an an organization that provides jobs

11:41

Education Health Care other services

11:44

that are not otherwise

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available um really is deeply disturbing

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uh as we're now producing a generation

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of Orphans um a generation of children

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with new disabilities who will then have

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no access to uh to healthc care

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education or other services that would

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be able to in some way help relieve some

12:07

of their pain and get them back to a

12:10

functioning

12:11

society and Dr galani you um have spoken

12:16

about the fact that many patients uh may

12:20

not have survived but their pain would

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certainly have been eased if the proper

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medical supplies were made available if

12:27

minimally uh medic

12:29

you spoke specifically of morphine uh

12:32

could be administered to ease their pain

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I mean if you could explain you know the

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how you work under conditions where you

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don't have access to even minimal

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medical supplies and what it it is that

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you're calling

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for well it's the doctors and nurses and

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healthc Care staff of Gaza who have

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displayed just absolute colossal bravery

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and how they see their patients many of

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whom haven't been paid many of whom are

12:58

themselves

12:59

displaced um four five times over

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Scavenging for food Water Shelter and

13:04

then showing up to work as I mentioned

13:06

in one of those uh notes strenuously uh

13:09

to serve their communities and then

13:11

coming to a workplace that doesn't have

13:13

what they need to be able to treat their

13:15

patients with dignity There Is No Death

13:17

with dignity in Gaza on the floor of an

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emergency room at the beginning of my

13:21

time in Gaza we did have access to

13:23

Morphine but by the end there was no

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access and at that point it becomes a

13:28

very cruel and inhumane situation to

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have someone actively dying without any

13:34

pain or Comfort to offer them um there

13:37

was I recall vividly uh a young boy that

13:41

had come in not for a life-threatening

13:43

injury um but for stitches because of

13:46

some deep lacerations when we would

13:48

usually use ketamine in a situation like

13:50

that because it's safe and in children

13:53

it provides both pain relief and Amnesia

13:55

so they're not ret traumatized from the

13:57

procedure of course we didn't have

13:59

ketamine and so I tried any distraction

14:02

measures I could with this young boy I

14:04

have sort of flashing lights in my

14:06

Arsenal as a pediatrician I have some

14:08

toys and he just was screaming through

14:11

the pain um I and then when I tried to

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ask him questions and engage him uh to

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distract him because that's a mechanism

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A coping mechanism we can use um you

14:21

know what qu every question is a

14:22

landmine what I would typically say in

14:25

the US is who's your best friend well

14:27

his best friend probably or might be

14:29

dead uh what's your favorite food I

14:32

don't know the last time this young

14:33

child ate and um would probably ret

14:36

traumatize him further um you know are

14:39

you closer to your mom or dad he came in

14:42

as a as a as an orphan with uh with only

14:46

family extended family members there is

14:48

no part or no prism or facet of their

14:51

life that has been left untouched it is

14:53

completely devastated and in a

14:55

cataclysmic

14:57

situation

14:59

can you talk more about being a

15:02

pediatrician in a war zone and also

15:06

people seeing you as a foreigner coming

15:08

in and you uh parts we didn't play talk

15:12

about people just coming up to you and

15:14

saying

15:16

ceasefire yeah absolutely people as as

15:19

the days went on more and more crowded

15:21

into the hospital seeking safe shelter

15:24

and so you would see entire families

15:25

perched on blankets um and so you would

15:28

they would recognize us as foreigners

15:30

and their little blankets served as uh

15:33

their bedroom their coffee room their

15:35

breakfast room their kitchen um just in

15:38

in the hopes that the hospital would

15:40

keep them safe and they would see us and

15:42

turn to us and and see us as foreigners

15:44

and say

15:46

ceasefire or even more heartbreakingly

15:49

so take me with you where can we go

15:52

where is safe um in terms of being a

15:54

pediatrician I've worked in in war zones

15:57

I've worked in Refugee rescue Boats off

15:59

the coast of liya Libya I've worked in

16:00

Iraq Afghanistan Pakistan Lebanon and

16:03

Egypt I have never treated this many War

16:06

wounded children in my career no system

16:10

is built to withstand what these people

16:12

are going through um on one day as you

16:16

saw four out of five of the children

16:18

whom we were actively resuscitating

16:20

which means trying to bring back from

16:22

the brink of death four or five of my

16:24

patients were under the age of 15 so

16:27

children and the extent extent of the

16:31

injuries the scale and magnitude and

16:33

severity especially in terms of burns is

16:35

also something that I've not witnessed

16:38

born witness to before we had um we had

16:41

an approximately 11-year-old girl whose

16:44

face was completely charred black and

16:47

her arms were flexed and contractured

16:49

and sort of waxy because the burns had

16:51

penetrated all the way down to the very

16:54

flesh and of her and um the smell of

16:57

burnt flesh

16:59

permeated the entire emergency room and

17:01

and will stay with me for a very long

17:03

time Dr Sima jalani we only have a

17:05

minute but if you could say it's already

17:08

so unbearable to just hear accounts of

17:11

what you're saying why do you do this

17:13

work and and what has it been like for

17:15

you from one war zone to the next and

17:17

now in a place like Gaza as you say

17:20

where you've never seen so many children

17:23

uh in in an emergency room of a

17:25

hospital it is the absolute honor and

17:27

privilege of my life to be able to be

17:30

let into people's moments whether they

17:33

are tragic moments of death and pain or

17:36

whether they are a new baby being born

17:38

and counseling a new mother on

17:39

breastfeeding it is the absolute honor

17:41

of my life to serve the people of Gaza

17:43

and I am so lucky to have served

17:46

alongside these towering Heroes that are

17:49

nurses and doctors and people that are

17:52

serving their communities and that's why

17:53

we'll keep going back and keep doing

17:56

this work and and and on the on the

17:59

flip side of that I would say it is all

18:00

of our responsibility to consider those

18:03

orphans consider those those families

18:05

who are completely bereth of of any and

18:08

all um uh human dignity that has been

18:11

taken from them and it's it sits with us

18:13

their fate will sit with

18:24

us