- Title: Few intensive care beds left in eastern Aleppo and no anesthesiologist doctor says
- Date: 29th September 2016
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (SEPTEMBER 28, 2016) (REUTERS) UNITED NATIONS BUILDING VARIOUS OF SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY (SAMS) DOCTOR, ABD ARRAHMAN ALOMAR ALOMAR TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY (SAMS) DOCTOR, ABD ARRAHMAN ALOMAR, SAYING: "Stop attacking and targeting humanity. Stop targeting ethics. Stop targeting life. Stop targeting civilization, because all of this are Syria, all of this are Syrian, and the Syrian people deserve the human rights." MAADI DISTRICT, ALEPPO, SYRIA (SEPTEMBER 28, 2016) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL HIT BY AIR STRIKES DEBRIS ON GROUND OUTSIDE HOSPITAL CHAIR, TABLE AND DEBRIS OUTSIDE HOSPITAL GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (SEPTEMBER 28, 2016) (REUTERS) ALOMAR TALKING TO JOURNALIST JOURNALIST LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY (SAMS) DOCTOR, ABD ARRAHMAN ALOMAR, SAYING: "It is not acceptable that only one gynaecologist serve the women of eastern Aleppo, only one gynaecologist; and also two paediatricians only are serving the people, children of eastern Aleppo. No anaesthesiologist at all, inside Aleppo city. The doctors inside Aleppo city, there are only 30 doctors, those 30 doctors are so overwhelmed." VARIOUS OF ALOMAR SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY (SAMS) DOCTOR, ABD ARRAHMAN ALOMAR, SAYING: "Figures of patients who are, who need to be evacuated from Aleppo city are escalating also, are increasing. We have now more than 200 cases which need prompt evacuation outside Aleppo city to Idlib hospitals and to Turkey." MAADI DISTRICT, ALEPPO, SYRIA (SEPTEMBER 28, 2016) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS) WORKER WALKING PAST DEBRIS DEBRIS OUTSIDE HOSPITAL AMBULANCE WITH DESTROYED INTERIOR AMBULANCE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL
- Embargoed: 14th October 2016 11:53
- Keywords: Aleppo hospitals doctors health medical care Syria Syrian American Medical Society Abd Arrahman Alomar
- Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / MAADI DISTRICT, ALEPPO, SYRIA
- City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / MAADI DISTRICT, ALEPPO, SYRIA
- Country: Syria
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA00151MD6IV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: More than 200 wounded people need to be evacuated immediately from Syria's besieged enclave of eastern Aleppo, where there remain no anaesthetists and only six intensive care beds, a doctor from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) told Reuters on Wednesday (September 28).
Russian or Syrian warplanes knocked a major Aleppo hospital out of service on Wednesday, hospital workers said, and ground forces intensified their assault on the city's besieged rebel sector, in a battle that has become a potentially decisive turning point in the civil war.
Since a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia fell apart, the rebel-held part of the city, where 250,000 people are trapped, has been the target of an intense campaign of airstrikes, now coupled with ground operations.
The week-old assault has already killed hundreds of people, with bunker-busting bombs bringing down buildings on residents huddled inside.
"Stop attacking and targeting humanity," Dr Abd Arrahman Alomar from SAMS said was his message in an interview with Reuters in Geneva.
Based in Turkey near the Syrian border, the paediatrician goes back and forth into Syria and is in constant contact with his colleagues in east Aleppo.
"It is not acceptable that only one gynaecologist serve the women of eastern Aleppo, only one gynaecologist; and also two paediatricians only are serving the people, children of eastern Aleppo. No anaesthesiologist at all, inside Aleppo city. The doctors inside Aleppo city, there are only 30 doctors, those 30 doctors are so overwhelmed," he said.
"Figures of patients who are, who need to be evacuated from Aleppo city are escalating also, are increasing. We have now more than 200 cases which need prompt evacuation outside Aleppo city to Idlib hospitals and to Turkey," he added.
Alomar said the M2 hospital, badly damaged in the shelling, might be functioning again within days but that he did not know how long it would take to get M10 -- the biggest trauma hospital in the besieged rebel-held part of the city -- up and running.
In the shelling, seven intensive care beds were destroyed, leaving only six for the whole population of the eastern area, worsening an already dramatic situation. The remaining intensive care unit beds are at the Al Quds and M1 hospitals.
There are no ventilators for newborns nor nurses qualified to look after them, and technicians are standing in as anaesthetists. Antibiotics, orthopaedic supplies and drugs for treating chronic diseases are running low and other medicines have run out. The only bloodbank, which was providing 50 blood bags a day a few weeks ago, is now facing demand for 300 a day, Alomar said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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