Gazans torn between two choices: Losing a limb or dying
3 Min Read
An estimated 54,500 Palestinians are faced with the choice of possible death or amputation.
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A Palestinian wounded in an Israeli bombing is brought to a hospital in Deir-al-Balah in south Gaza on October 17, 2023. (AP)
According to the World Health Organization and the Health Ministry in Gaza, amputations have become a regular occurrence due to the Israeli strikes on the Strip.
Dozens of recent amputees are being treated and recovering at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, and an estimated 54,500 Palestinians are faced with the choice of possible death or amputation.
22-year-old Shaimaa Nabahin recalls that doctors gave her the choice between risking death or amputating her left leg. A clump of cement blown into her home from the explosion partially severed her ankle and arteries in her leg. She was rushed to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where physicians were able to stitch up her leg and stop the bleeding.
She had been hospitalized in Gaza for around a week after her ankle was partially severed in an Israeli bombing when medics told her she had blood poisoning. Nabahin decided to increase her chances of life by having her leg amputated 15 cm (6 inches) below the knee.
She told AP at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah that the unfortunate decision has changed her whole life. “If I want to take a step or go anywhere, I need help.”
After weeks of "Israel's" barrage of air and ground attacks, just nine of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain operating. They are very congested, provide little care, and lack basic surgical equipment. Many injured people are unable to reach the remaining hospitals due to Israeli bombing and ground invasion.
These vital medical sanctuaries, meant to be places of healing and refuge, have become "Israel's" primary targets in its strategy of catastrophization.
According to Sean Casey, a WHO official who recently visited numerous Gaza hospitals, the severe shortage of vascular surgeons – the first responders to trauma injuries and best positioned to preserve limbs — is increasing the possibility of amputations.
Casey told a news conference last week that “people may die of the infections that they have because their limbs are infected,” adding, “We saw patients who were septic.”
Not all amputations are successful. According to Jourdel Francois, an orthopedic physician with Doctors Without Borders, the danger of post-op infections is significant in war-torn Gaza. Francois, who worked at Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis in November, said cleanliness was bad, owing to a lack of water and the general pandemonium at a hospital overrun with patients and housing thousands of displaced residents.
He recalled a little girl who died after both her legs were crushed and she could not receive surgery the same day due to the massive number of injuries. Francois attributed her cause of death to most likely from sepsis, or bacterial blood poisoning.
He told AP, “There are 50 (injured) people arriving every day, you have to make a choice."
Nawal Jaber, 54, has had both her legs amputated after Israeli strikes hit her neighbor's empty house in Bureij. The strike killed her grandson and her husband and son were seriously injured.
“I wish I could meet the needs of my children, (but) I am unable,” she said while crying.
