Syrian doctor reveals nightmare treating patients on earthquake front line

Hundreds need surgery in hospital where only three or four can be treated daily

Syrian rescue workers gather amidst collapsed buildings on February 6, 2022 in the town of Sarmada, in Syria's rebel-held northwestern Idlib province. AFP

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A Syrian doctor working on the front line of an area hit by Monday’s earthquake has spoken of the difficulty of treating the overwhelming number of patients with complicated injuries.

Dr Osama Salloum, an emergency doctor at the Baba Al-Hawa Hospital in north-western Syria, said he and his colleagues have had to watch helplessly as patients, including children, die in front of them.

He told the BBC: “The number of the patients is so high. Maybe we have at least 400 [people requiring] operations.”

Their injuries require treatment including vascular and neurosurgery, he said.

“We can deal with three or four every day. That means we will still be working for a month [to treat them].

“That means some patients will lose their lives and maybe [there] will be disabilities if we continue in that situation.”

Some of the equipment at the hospital has buckled under the pressure of service and the hospital has exhausted some of its drug supplies.

Baba Al-Hawa, like all other hospitals in the area, is full.

Earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria — in pictures

“We do our best to save lives but our capacity does not fit with this catastrophe,” the doctor said. "In addition to that, every moment one body under the rubble needs help. The medical staff is so exhausted."

Many worked for 20 hours yesterday treating patients.

“They cannot continue their duties, their operations,” he said.

“We have no opportunity to refer those patients to another hospital. There is no opportunity to serve in another hospital. All the referrals line to Turkey or another country is closed completely and we have to deal with these complicated injuries with our capacity.

“So we are struggling with that.”

Jennifer Higgins, of the International Rescue Committee, said the affected area in Syria had a high number of refugees and displacement camps, and even before the quake, the region was difficult to access and largely reliant on humanitarian assistance.

“There was already limited electricity, clean water," she said. "We had a very serious cholera outbreak that the health system was dealing with up until now."

She said the "critically fragile health system" was struggling to deal with the catastrophe. "What’s really been critical has been ensuring the safety and location of our own staff," she added.

“Because of a lack of electricity and communication lines, it’s been really hard to even communicate with our own staff in the area.”

She said it is not yet known what access will be available for humanitarian aid, with a very limited or closed border crossing.

"This is not only compounded by damage to the roads from the earthquake, but also in the wake of a very serious snowstorm and terrible weather we have been having recently. We need to understand quickly what sort of access and support can go in, said Ms Higgins.

"And I think that while we definitely welcome that many countries have been pledging their support and assistance, especially to the response in Turkey, it’s essential to remember that these earthquakes don’t respect borders, checkpoints and closures.

"So humanitarian funding and assistance must be ramped up to deal with these consequences, both in Turkey and also inside north Syria."