2023-11-11 06:29:56
“Gaza hospitals face pain-relief shortage amid conflict”
The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip has led to a devastating shortage of pain-relieving medications in hospitals, leaving medical staff struggling to treat patients without proper anesthesia or painkillers.
At Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, nurse Abu Imad Hassanein recounted the heart-wrenching scene of a young girl crying and screaming in pain as a wound on her head was stitched without any anesthetic. The hospital has been forced to deal with an unprecedented influx of wounded individuals and a scarcity of pain-relief medications since the start of the war more than a month ago.
Patients like Nimr Abu Thaer, who sustained injuries in an Israeli airstrike, have had to endure the pain of having wounds stitched without any painkillers. Thaer described reading the Qur’an as a means of coping with the excruciating pain.
The director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, highlighted the dire situation faced by medical teams, who have had to perform surgeries such as amputations, wound suturing, and treating serious burns without adequate pain relief.
The shortage of anesthetics has also affected Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where Doctor Muhammad Zaqout described performing operations, including cesarean sections, on women without any sedation, a situation he described as “very painful” for the patients.
While some aid has now been allowed into Gaza, relief organizations and the United Nations have warned that the level of aid provided is not enough to alleviate the humanitarian disaster. Zaqout emphasized that there is still a severe shortage of anesthetics in hospitals located in the northern part of the sector, which continues to be subject to severe bombing.
The conflict in the region has not only resulted in devastating physical injuries but has also caused immense suffering for those in need of medical treatment, highlighting the urgent need for increased humanitarian aid to address the dire shortage of medical supplies in Gaza.]
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