jason_recliner
Premiership Player
- Dec 9, 2020
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- 3,875
- AFL Club
- West Coast
Perth doctor Mohammed Mustafa provides chilling account from hospitals of Gaza
"I remember my first day," Dr Mustafa said."I went into the emergency department, and it was chaotic. There were hundreds of people. People that have chronic diseases that haven't been getting treated.
"There was a mass casualty event, so I rushed into the 'resus' [resuscitation] room.
"They started bringing in bodies of children that had been hit by a drone strike in a playground. There were about 10 bodies of children on the floor.
"When the families bring them in, they bring them wrapped in blankets.
"I remember the first blanket that I opened up. It was a child with his head missing. And I remember just freezing for about 15 seconds."
Most of the other medics on the ward at the time were students, so Dr Mustafa effectively became the leader of the emergency department on his first day.
"I remember nurses grabbing me by the shoulder, saying 'doctor, we need you', and I was just frozen in shock at what I was seeing. We had to make some really difficult decisions," he said.
"There were children on the floor bleeding out, and I had to pick which one I was going to focus my energy on.
"While I'm there, trying to resuscitate one child, I can see another child bleeding to death on the floor that I'm leaving to die.
"It's been really difficult to process."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-29/perth-doctors-account-from-gaza/104286424