BFF-14-15 Reunited post-Aleppo battle, Syria medics mete out ‘hope’

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Reunited post-Aleppo battle, Syria medics mete out ‘hope’

AL GHANDURA, Syria, Aug 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Her scarred hands wrapped in
gloves, Malakeh Harbaliyya lifted an infant out of an incubator at a hospital
in Syria’s rural north, holding him gently as he guzzled milk from a bottle.

Nearly two years ago, the nurse and her brave colleagues were scrambling
to save premature babies from heavy regime bombardment of Aleppo city, before
ultimately being forced to quit the facility altogether.

Now the same team of doctors has reunited to open Hope Hospital in
northern parts of the province still outside regime control.

“I think of the children first before thinking of myself, because their
lives are in our hands,” said 31-year-old Harbaliyya at the facility in
rebel-held Al-Ghandura.

“Their tiny souls didn’t do anything to deserve this war.”

In November 2016, Harbaliyya was working in the only children’s hospital
still operating in rebel parts of Aleppo city when an air strike slammed into
the building.

In footage of the aftermath, Harbaliyya is seen scooping up a baby in a
light pink blanket, then suddenly bursting into loud sobs.

Barely eight months later, after evacuating the city, a car bomb sent
Harbaliyya herself into intensive care in neighbouring Turkey.

But she has pulled through, and the severe burns on her hands have today
healed into a swirl of scars.

Her hair covered by a pink-coloured scarf and dressed in a top that reads
“Girls for the Future,” Harbaliyya beamed as she lovingly pinched a frail
infant’s cheeks.

“My colleagues at the Hope Hospital — the staff with me here — gave me
the will to live,” she said.

– ‘Wherever we went’ –

In blue scrubs, Dr Hatem greeted his colleagues at the door before heading
in to examine a girl squirming on a consultation bed from stomach pain.

The hallway features a large portrait of Mohammad Wassim Maaz, a beloved
children’s doctor who died in an air strike on Aleppo city in April 2016.

Later that year, after the city’s Children’s Hospital was knocked out of
action and as a regime victory loomed, Hatem and his colleagues formulated a
plan.

With government troops closing in, the staff knew they would soon be
evacuated from Aleppo and wanted to stay together, said the 32-year-old
doctor, also the hospital’s director.

“Wherever we went, we wanted to set up a children’s hospital,” said Hatem,
preferring not to give his surname.

In under a month, a crowd-funding campaign by the Turkey-based Independent
Doctors Association and Britain’s CanDo charity gathered enough donations
from around the world to rehabilitate and run a new hospital for a whole
year.

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“We would never have imagined that we could find the whole amount in just
three weeks,” Hatem said.

With equipment brought from Britain via neighbouring Turkey, they opened
the Hope Hospital in April 2017 in the previously underserved Al-Ghandura
district.

“There was not a single dispensary or anything to do with medicine in the
whole area,” said Hatem, who criss-crossed parts of the province still under
rebel control looking for a good location.

Slowly, the facility grew into a fully-fledged children’s hospital
complete with nine baby incubators, a malnutrition clinic, a well-equipped
lab and emergency services.

– ‘Something extraordinary’ –

After having to refer many women to another hospital, they added an
obstetrics and gynaecology section too.

“The team is mostly the same as the one in Aleppo but, because of the
bigger workload here and the higher turnout, we had to increase staff,” said
Hatem.

As the only specialised facility for miles, his clinic set amidst tall
pine trees receives 8,500 to 9,500 cases a month.

“The Hope Hospital really is a point of hope,” he said.

“It allowed the staff from Aleppo to feel that there is still humanity
left in the world,” Hatem said of the donations that brought the facility to
life.

But funds have started to run out and another crowd-funding campaign
failed to meet its target.

Now, staff hope to sign a contract with the UN’s children agency (UNICEF)
to help run the facility for six more months.

Hospital manager Riyadh Najjar, 31, said the hospital is providing
services to many in need.

“It’s anguishing to leave your city, but here you have the opportunity to
serve people,” he said, dressed in trousers and a white t-shirt.

Beyond the district’s original inhabitants, Najjar said the hospital also
serves many Syrians displaced from other parts of the country by the seven-
year war.

Like the hospital staff, patients come from Aleppo city, but also the
central province of Homs and northern province of Raqa.

“It’s something extraordinary to be able to offer them medical services
and help them,” said Najjar.

BSS/AFP/MSY/1025 hrs