Birmingham doctor tells of horrors in Gaza

Feb 26 2009 by Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

A BIRMINGHAM doctor has revealed the medical crisis he saw in the Middle East after he flew out to provide emergency operations to bomb and shelling victims in Gaza.

Dr Hussein Nagi, an anaesthetist consultant at City Hospital, in Winson Green, joined a team of 10 doctors and a nurse to work with aid organisations in the Gaza strip when conflict erupted between Israelis and Palestinians earlier this year.

The father-of-four was able to give urgent medical assistance through Human Appeal International and Palestinian International Medical Aid in the Gaza strip.

But he said he had to work under tough conditions that would be illegal in this country.

“They are desperate for anaesthetists and in one day they had about 240 casualties in one hospital,” said Dr Nagi.

“The doctors were working flat-out for 48 hours, even on the fifth day of the crisis.

“There were injured patients who had still not yet gone into theatre because of the workload.

“The standard is much lower than here.

“In Britain, it would be illegal to work without an anaesthetic technician in each theatre.

“Over there, I found one anaesthetic technician per six theatres.

“There were two teams in theatre, which is unheard of over here, so I realised there was a need for an extra pair of hands.”

Dr Nagi and his team took equipment to the war-torn area and shared expertise with other medics when hostility escalated in January.

Even though he has returned to the safety of routine operations at City Hospital, he was so moved by the experience and people he met and treated, Dr Nagi now wants to establish a pain management clinic in Gaza.

The 22-day offensive is reported to have claimed more than 1,200 Palestinian lives, while Hamas targeted Israeli cities through rocket launches.

Dr Nagi, who graduated from Cairo University in 1980 and has been working in the UK since 1985, worked at a referral military hospital in Saudi Arabia for two-and-a-half years, and also in Bosnia with relief agencies in 1995.