Posts tagged war injuries

Photo: MSF staff examine a patient at the surgical trauma hospital. Syria 2012 © MSF

Syria: ‘We Just Kept Working, Day and Night’

“One young man accounted for nine out of the first 29 operations we did. His injury resulted in a hindquarter amputation [an operation in which the entire leg and part or all of the pelvis are removed]. He came back regularly for surgery and we were eventually able to close the wound and he was discharged. After that, he would come back on crutches, with his brother, both with huge smiles on their faces, happy to see all of us who had been involved in his care. It was so good to see his recovery and that he was doing well. Quite a few weeks later we received the sad news that this young man had been killed in a bomb blast in Aleppo. It was devastating for all of us.”

-Interview with Ruth Priestley, an Australian operating theater nurse who recently spent nine weeks working in Syria.

MSF established its surgical trauma hospital in Syria in mid-June in collaboration with the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations. By the end of September, more than 1,100 patients had been treated, and more than 260 surgical interventions had been conducted.