The Aleppo doctors saving lives despite 'targets on their heads'

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What a difficult job these doctors have.



The Aleppo doctors saving lives despite 'targets on their heads'


By Nima Elbagir, Bharati Naik and Bryony Jones, CNN



Updated 2318 GMT (0718 HKT) July 14, 2016

Doctor witnesses tragedy during the siege of Aleppo 04:30
Hatay, Turkey (CNN)The smell of death hung heavy in the air as Dr. Samer Attar made his perilous journey to work two weeks ago.

On any normal day, the orthopedic surgeon would be heading to his office at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, tucked in between the shining glass skyscrapers in the beating heart of downtown Chicago.
But the Castello Road is a long way from his regular commute. Linking rebel-held areas of Aleppo to the Turkish border, it is a hotly contested strip of territory, just one of many battlegrounds in Syria's long-running civil war.
"The road smelled of rotten flesh, burnt metal, there were plumes of smoke from ordnance that had fallen previously," remembers Attar, speaking to CNN shortly after crossing the border back into Turkey.


Why prognosis for all Aleppo's children is grave
The journey to eastern Aleppo, past buildings gutted by missile strikes, areas turned into ghost towns, and even defiant roadside market stalls offering occasional signs of life, was speedy, and harrowing.
"The driver was really fast and at every moment you felt like you would get hit by a bomb or a missile or bullet," he says.

Continue reading at:

Aleppo doctors saving lives despite 'targets on heads' - CNN.com

 

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Potential for ‘Unparalleled’ Humanitarian Catastrophe in Aleppo...

UN: Aleppo at Risk of ‘Unparalleled’ Humanitarian Catastrophe
August 22, 2016 — The United Nations aid chief warned Monday that Syria is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time and there “is a race against time” to save hundreds of thousands of besieged civilians with food, water and medical supplies.

“In Aleppo, we risk seeing a humanitarian catastrophe unparalleled in the over five years of bloodshed and carnage in the Syrian conflict,” Stephen O’Brien told the U.N. Security Council in his monthly briefing on the situation. “Once again," he added, "I cannot stress strongly enough the need for a 48-hour pause in fighting to be approved by all sides and come into effect, so that safe and sustained humanitarian access is opened to all areas of Aleppo.” Since last month, the U.N. has been asking for weekly 48-hour pauses in the fighting in Aleppo in order to get aid in and the sick and injured out.

O’Brien said the U.N. is ready to move some 70 trucks with aid into eastern Aleppo as soon as it receives the necessary security guarantees. The eastern part of the city is held by opposition forces, but has been encircled and under siege by government forces for weeks, effectively trapping some 250,000 people. The government controls the city’s west, where more than a million people still reside. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city and before the civil war began, the country’s commercial center. O’Brien said the humanitarian crisis goes well beyond Aleppo. Despite having asked the Syrian government to authorize aid deliveries to 32 locations across the country in August, he said the government had denied the U.N. access to more than 50 percent of requested beneficiaries. In addition, fighting and administrative delays have contributed to not a single convoy moving so far this month.

The aid chief told the Security Council — which has faced a political divide over Syria — that he is “very angry” and that the “callous carnage” has long since moved from “the cynical to the sinful.” “Now is the moment, this instant, to put differences aside, come together as one and stop this humanitarian shame upon us all, once and for all,” O’Brien urged. Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vitaly Churkin, told the council that “the government is doing everything to ensure that the civilian population has a more or less normal life; they are doing this despite unilateral economic sanctions.”

Churkin said work is under way to define the parameters of the pauses, and he warned that fighters seeking to resupply and regroup should not exploit them. Last week, Russia announced its support for the U.N.-proposed 48-hour weekly humanitarian pauses in Aleppo. “We need to see Russia follow its unilateral declaration with genuine steps to support regular and sustained access to Aleppo,” U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Michele Sison told the council. The United States supports the pauses. Sison said they are necessary because the people of Aleppo “need U.N. help now,” but that a more comprehensive arrangement that revives the collapsed nationwide cessation of hostilities is needed to guarantee wider aid access.

UN: Aleppo at Risk of ‘Unparalleled’ Humanitarian Catastrophe

See also:

UN Welcomes Russian Words on Aleppo Truce, Says Aid Trucks Are Ready
August 18, 2016 — Russia said Thursday that it would support a 48-hour cease-fire in Aleppo, a move the U.N. Syria envoy said would allow aid to reach besieged areas soon, as long as all sides respected the temporary truce. Moscow said it was ready to start the first "humanitarian pause" next week.

U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has long called for a 48-hour halt in fighting each week to allow aid delivery and medical evacuations from both rebel-held eastern and government-controlled western Aleppo. He welcomed the Russian Defense Ministry tweet and said the U.N. humanitarian team "is now set to mobilize itself to respond to this challenge." "Our plan is to collectively work out the operational details and be ready for delivery as soon as possible," de Mistura's office said in a statement. Moscow must ensure that its allied Syrian government forces adhere to the pause, while the United States and regional powers must ensure that the opposition fighters are also on board, he said.

Millions in need

Aleppo, Syria's most populous pre-war city and its commercial hub, has become the focus of fighting in the five-year-old civil war. Up to 2 million people on both sides lack clean water after infrastructure was damaged in bombing. Escalating violence there, where Russia and Iran are supporting bombing campaigns against the rebels, some of whom are backed by Arab and Western powers, has caused the breakdown of Geneva peace talks overseen by de Mistura.

The Syrian opposition has said it wants to see a credible pause in the bloodshed and improved humanitarian aid access before peace talks resume. "Trucks with food, water and medicine are ready to move immediately, and ambulances to evacuate urgent medical cases are on standby," said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A Western diplomat said it was important for the United Nations to lead the aid effort. "It is not a Russian operation. It has to be a U.N. operation to be a good and credible operation," the diplomat told Reuters. "It would start at the beginning of next week on condition that there is an agreement between the U.N., Russia and the [Syrian] regime on modalities."

UN Welcomes Russian Words on Aleppo Truce, Says Aid Trucks Are Ready

 

[Bleipriester]

When the terrorists attack, no humanitarian crisis is mourned by the West. Daily ceasefires and massive humanitarian aid by Syria and Russia stands ready. All this liars care about is their trapped terrorists.
No humanitarian crisis when the Iraqi army attacked Ramadi, Fallujah and now Mosul.
No humanitarian crisis in Manbij, where the US bombed a densely populated city that was besieged by the SDF for weeks.

 

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When will there be hope?...

Is there light at the end of the tunnel for Aleppo's dying children and shattered health system?
August 24, 2016 - Being a doctor can be risky business, some times more than others.

During my dozen medical missions to Syria, I had to crawl under a border fence, jump over walls, walk in the mountains at night for hours without any light, pass through the sniper alley in Aleppo, negotiate with smugglers and work in bombed, underground hospitals. The Syrian crisis is now in its fifth year. The country's health services are under unprecedented strain due to the protracted war, deliberate targeting of health staff and infrastructure by the Syrian regime and Russian forces, the exodus of physicians and nurses, shortages of medical supplies and medications and the disruption of medical education and training. Syria's largest city, Aleppo, has 85,000 children, including around 20,000 below the age of two. Dozens are injured every week, just like five-year-old Omran Daqneesh whose pictures have shocked the world. Many have far worse injuries and will not survive. I took care of some of these unlucky children, such as Ahmad Hijazi, also five years old. He was hit by one of Assad's barrel bombs. These are containers the size of barrels, stuffed with TNT and metal shrapnel, which the Syrian regime throws from helicopters onto urban areas such as hospitals, civilian neighbourhoods, fruit markets and schools.

Doctors have to use unorthodox methods to do their work.​

Ahmad had shrapnel lodged in his spinal cord and was paralysed from his neck down. When I saw him, he was breathing with great difficulty, so we put a breathing tube in his mouth and put him on life support. The day after I left, he had a cardiac arrest and died. About 500,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Half of the population has been displaced. There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. Medical neutrality is a principle under international humanitarian law that ensures protection of medical personnel, patients, facilities and transport from attack or interference. It also underpins unhindered access to medical care and treatment; humane treatment of all civilians; and non-discriminatory treatment of the injured and sick. Systematic attacks on health care, mostly by the Syrian government and recently Russia, are violations of medical neutrality and therefore war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.

A health system in ruins

Before the onset of fighting, Syria's health care system was comparable with that of other middle-income countries such as Iran. By 2015, all sectors of the country's health infrastructure had disintegrated. Within only a few years, the life expectancy of resident Syrians has declined by 20 years; from 76 in 2010 to 56 by the end of 2014. This isn't all due to the direct effects of war. Many more Syrians have died prematurely from infections and chronic disease than from the fighting – this includes diseases such as pneumonia, hepatitis, tuberculosis and diarrhoeal infections, as well as heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Hospitals and clinics have been destroyed. Eight out of the 10 hospitals in Eastern Aleppo are partially functional or out of service as a result of targeted attacks. From March 2011 to the end of May 2016, at least 738 Syrian doctors, nurses and medical aides died in 373 attacks on medical facilities.

Syria's largest city Aleppo has 85,000 children, including about 20,000 below the age of two.​

The working conditions of Aleppo's remaining doctors are unsustainable. An estimated 35 doctors are left in Eastern Aleppo which, with a population of approximately 300,000, means there is one doctor for every 8,570 people. There is not a single critical-care doctor – my own speciality – despite the abundance of critically ill patients. Doctors, local administrators and NGOs are struggling in substandard conditions and often use unorthodox methods to do their work. They work in underground makeshift hospitals, hospitals dug into mountains or in natural caves for protection. They perform surgeries without light, proper anaesthesia or sterilisation, transfuse blood without proper matching and have medical students or dentists perform life-saving procedures due to the shortage of specialists. Much-needed medical supplies are channelled through dangerous routes across the borders of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. As physicians, we can't wait for politicians to fix the crisis.

What needs to be done

 

[Bleipriester]

When will there be hope?...

When the terrorists are gone.
Did you know one of the terrorists "digging out" the 5 year old boy was identified as one of the bastards that beheaded the 12 year old boy in Aleppo?[/QUOTE]

 

[Sally]

When will there be hope?...

When the terrorists are gone.
Did you know one of the terrorists "digging out" the 5 year old boy was identified as one of the bastards that beheaded the 12 year old boy in Aleppo?

[/QUOTE]


Tut, tut, Little Man, these rescuers are having a hard enough time there trying to help people while your boyfriend's aircraft think nothing of bombing these innocent civilians. Don't forge that there are brave journalists on the ground sending out their reports to the various news outlets.

 

[Bleipriester]

Tut, tut, Little Man, these rescuers are having a hard enough time there trying to help people while your boyfriend's aircraft think nothing of bombing these innocent civilians. Don't forge that there are brave journalists on the ground sending out their reports to the various news outlets.

“Aleppo boy” photographer responds to allegations of beheading involvment

 

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[Sally]

As you can see, the childish Little Man is having the time of his lonely life posting around the clock. Forums are the only way he is able to communicate with other people, and he loves all the attention he is getting. However, the brave doctors and the rescuers will have some job on their hands even though the Little Man constantly puts them down. I think most readers are smart enough to see right through him and the reasons he is doing this.


U.N. says both Syrian government, Islamic State using chemical weapons?

Not a word have we hear fro m the Little Man about the unfortunate children caught up in this conflict. Could it be because it is his boyfriend's aircraft causing a lot of the damage to children?

'These are children bombed every day': Photographers surprised by impact of image of Aleppo boy?

 

[Bleipriester]

Give Us Childhood and Peace – The Syrian Children’s Dream
Syria has taken all measures to protect children
Al-Jaafari: UN report on Syria’s children ignores facts

Syria hands over last of declared chemical weapons
Washington Times: Obama lied about Syrian chemical attack
Syrian Government Not Responsible For Chemical Attack

 

[Sally]

Give Us Childhood and Peace – The Syrian Children’s Dream
Syria has taken all measures to protect children
Al-Jaafari: UN report on Syria’s children ignores facts

Syria hands over last of declared chemical weapons
Washington Times: Obama lied about Syrian chemical attack
Syrian Government Not Responsible For Chemical Attack

We will let Baghdad Bob Jr. take a little rest and catch his breath. It's a tough job for him trying to find all the news that his boyfriend is an angel.

Bashar al-Assad has normalised the use of chemical weapons in Syria – and we rewarded him for it

 

[Bleipriester]

Give Us Childhood and Peace – The Syrian Children’s Dream
Syria has taken all measures to protect children
Al-Jaafari: UN report on Syria’s children ignores facts

Syria hands over last of declared chemical weapons
Washington Times: Obama lied about Syrian chemical attack
Syrian Government Not Responsible For Chemical Attack

We will let Baghdad Bob Jr. take a little rest and catch his breath. It's a tough job for him trying to find all the news that his boyfriend is an angel.

Bashar al-Assad has normalised the use of chemical weapons in Syria – and we rewarded him for it

Your source is known to be very eager to blame the terrorists´ crimes on Assad.