This mother would never see her children grow up, never watch her daughter graduate from college, or her son become a man. The injustice of it all burned within me, a fire that would never be extinguished.
The emergency department at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al Balah was in chaos, a familiar scene during my second medical mission in Gaza. The aftermath of multiple airstrikes on the nearby Nuseirat Refugee Camp had left us with a relentless influx of casualties. Bodies lay on the ground awaiting assessment, and patients continued to arrive, victims of the most recent bombing.
Amidst the turmoil, a 29-year-old mother with three small children was rushed in by ambulance. She was unconscious, her blood pressure dangerously low, and she was bleeding from her breast. Her children, all under seven, sat quietly by her side, their faces etched with fear.
I reached into my tackle bag, gloves bloody, and pulled out a few balloons to distract them. Their faces lit up as they grabbed the colorful latex, momentarily forgetting the horror around them.
A Father’s Eyes Filled with Despair – A Doctor’s Testimony from Gaza
An elderly woman, later revealed to be the aunt, accompanied the mother. The woman was covered in a gown, clutching her breast where a massive tumor protruded.
As I removed her clothing and the gauze applied by paramedics, I was confronted with a sight that, despite my experience in underserved areas, I had never witnessed: a breast mass so large and disfiguring that it was clearly the source of her profuse bleeding.
A diaper beside her was filled with a large clot of blood, evidence of the tumor’s highly vascularized state. I attempted to stem the bleeding, but it was clear that this growth had been uncontrolled for months, becoming a ticking time bomb. I ordered two units of emergent blood as her pressure plummeted, her skin turning pale and clammy.
Her aunt revealed that the lump had been noticed months prior, the size of an olive. A doctor had prescribed tumor resection and chemotherapy, treatments unavailable in Gaza due to the decimated healthcare system. Approved for medical evacuation by the WHO, she had been denied exit by the Israeli government multiple times.
Israeli Government’s Use of ‘Toxic Deflection’ to Justify Annihilation of Palestinians
Reviewing her records, it was evident that her cancer was treatable. In any other country, or even in Gaza before October 7th, she would have received care and been cured. But now, there was nothing we could do. We lacked the blood supply to stabilize her, and the surgical resources needed to debulk the tumor were better allocated to patients with more hope for recovery.
I turned to the young woman, her children huddled close, and delivered the devastating news. She would die soon, with her children next to her on the cot. This mother would never see her children grow up, never watch her daughter graduate from college, or her son become a man. The injustice of it all burned within me, a fire that would never be extinguished.
The manufactured cruelties I witnessed in Gaza will forever be etched in my mind. This young mother, denied treatment due to deliberately created barriers, paid the ultimate price. It’s hard to imagine a more innocent civilian being punished by the Israeli government.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has blocked lifesaving medications like chemotherapy, sealing the fate of countless others like her. Her story is a stark reminder of the calculated annihilation of the healthcare system in Gaza and the urgent need for change.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Dr. Mimi Syed is an American board-certified emergency medicine physician, Dr. Syed served in Gaza from August 8 to September 5, 2024, and December 3 to December 31, 2024, at both Al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Hospital. She contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle.
