Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Dismemberment Devastates Aleppo | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A man walks through a room at Dar Al Shifa Hospital, damaged in yesterday’s Syrian Air force air strike, in the Sha’aar neighbourhood of Aleppo August 15, 2012. The patients that were in the hospital when the air strike happened have now all been evacuated. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic


The scene of dismembered children and youth became familiar in the areas controlled by the opposition in Aleppo, with the lack of vessels-specialized doctors and the inability of transporting the injured people to hospitals on the Turkish borders, following the Systematic target of ambulances.

Available doctors and nurses are often obliged to dismember organs with vessels injuries due to the lack of specialized doctors and ambulances. According to Khaled al-Halabi, an orthopedist who works in one of the field hospitals in Aleppo, the main problem that obstructs the work of hospitals in providing the patients and the injured with medical services is the inability to cope with all the injuries caused by the bombing of Russian and regime forces, and particularly the injuries that involve vessels, arteries, and the lymphatic system, due to the absence of specialized doctors.

Halabi added that most of field hospitals depend on doctors of general surgeries, who gained a remarkable expertise in treating such cases.

The Prime Minister of the opposition’s interim government, Jawad Abu Hatab who visits the hospitals in Northern Syria to help in relieving the injured people, said that over the past hours, a vessels-specialized doctor was sent to Aleppo. Yet, there was a lot of danger on his way, thus it took him a long time to arrive.

Abu Hatab told Asharq al-Awsat that there are only three vessels-specialized doctors in the entire Northern part of Syria, and added that the opposition is negotiating with the Kurds to provide a new path to facilitate the transportation of injured people to Turkey.

The PM also noted that the main problem that obstructs the medical staff is the displacement of hospitals to new unequipped places to avoid the bombings of Russian and regime forces, in addition to the big numbers of injuries that can’t be contained by hospitals.

According to Dr. Halabi, the hospitals also lack nervous system doctors and dermatologists, despite the major gap in medicament and medical equipment.

Ahmad Sweid, a supporter in “Inqaz” ambulance organization working in the areas controlled by the opposition said they transport only three injured people toward the Turkish borders per day, while tens of others remain in Syria despite their need of relief.

Le Monde newspaper reported that around 40 doctors only are still working in the East of Aleppo, which is controlled by the opposition, and said that they are fulfilling an exceptional role. The newspaper accused the regime of intentionally targeting health facilities in the city, which were bombed 105 times since the beginning of the crisis. Raphael Betti, a French doctor, who visited Aleppo 15 times since 2011, said that only three qualified committees are continuing their work in underground places to avoid the bombing.

Le Monde concluded that according to Betti, in other conflict areas where he also served, a number of foreign NGOs were working in the field, while the humanitarian organizations were totally absent.