A British-American doctor who travelled to Gaza this year watched helplessly as several Palestinian patients died in agony due to a lack of proper medical care. Here's her experience.Dr. Vanita Gupta cares for a patient after traveling to Gaza in January on a 10-day trip with MedGlobal, a humanitarian aid NGO .
You know crossing the border takes very long. I think it took us 12 to 14 hours because they keep stopping you, and make you wait at different places. I remember once there was this guy with a gunshot to his leg and he came in with a bunch of people who had also been shot at, they all rolled in together. But in the resuscitation room, they only have two or three beds.
I asked one of the family members what happened. He mentioned that Khan Younis, which is only about four kilometres from the hospital, had been cleared of tanks from the Israeli army and people thought they could go back to their homes. So they went back to their homes, but the snipers, they never left.
Then there are people with gunshots, or injuries from having limbs crushed, their legs were amputated. People were being amputated but then they didn't have the right care to follow it up. Then they're going to need a lot of money to rebuild everything. Garbage disposal, sanitation. They need mental health doctors. They need a lot. I don't even know where to begin.: I promised them that I would go back. But at this moment, more than my bodily presence there, they need advocation to stop the war, to collect funds, to give them an existence.