, a surgeon and chief executive director at Ayder Hospital in Mekele, the capital of Tigray."And they dispersed all the drugs to the ground, crushing it under the tire[s] of their military vehicle. No one dared to stop them."
Insulin is hard to come by. Birhan has borrowed some from her neighbor but often goes without."Even our physicians [and] nurses are crying in front of us because they don't have something to give," she says in tears. An emergency physician, Dr. Daniel Weldu, formerly at Ayder Hospital, put it this way:"I wouldn't want my beloved or my relatives to be treated [at my emergency department] because I know the limitations are so severe."
This woman was afraid she'd end up delivering in the middle of the night — in the dark. A physician herself, she asked that her name not be used for her own safety and because she fears her family elsewhere in Ethiopia may be interrogated or arrested. Then, this past June, at 5 in the morning, she gave birth to a baby boy. Fortunately, she didn't hemorrhage. And she didn't end up needing her solar-powered flashlight. The power, remarkably, stayed on. Subsequently, her son got his polio and tuberculosis vaccines, but none of the other routine immunizations were available.