Ivana Likbiri, an 18-month-old Lebanese child who acquired injured throughout an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, is hospitalized at Geitaoui Hospital’s burn unit, in Beirut, on Oct. 18.
Ali Khara for NPR
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Ali Khara for NPR
BEIRUT — Eighteen-month-old Ivana Likbiri was taking part in along with her older sister on the balcony of their dwelling one latest morning when Israel’s airstrikes got here.
In a flash, the wooden terrace the 2 little ladies had been taking part in on went up in flames.
“I don’t know what divine strength filled me, but I grabbed my girls from the fire and threw them over the balcony to save them,” says Ivana’s mom, Fatima Zayoun.
Zayoun’s time is now spent between two hospitals the place her daughters are receiving therapy for extreme burns. On today, she’s on the bedside of little Ivana, whose arms, legs, head and face are all wrapped in bandages with solely sufficient room for a pink pacifier to appease her. The subsequent day, Zayoun will swap locations along with her husband, who has been on the bedside of their 7-year-old Raha. She’s recovering at a unique hospital that also had open beds when the household made it to Beirut from their village of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr in southern Lebanon.
Zayoun and her household are actually amongst Lebanon’s 1.2 million displaced individuals who have needed to flee their houses as Israel has intensified its airstrikes throughout the nation in its struggle in opposition to the Iran-backed political and militant group Hezbollah.
On the opposite facet of the window, a nurse checks on her 11-year-old affected person, Mohamed, from southern Lebanon, at Geitaoui Hospital in Beirut, Oct. 18. He was admitted to the hospital after being severely burned in an Israeli assault. He was at dwelling when it occurred; his total household died within the strike apart from him and his mom, who can be hospitalized there.
Ali Khara for NPR
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Ali Khara for NPR
Some have settled into new houses in new neighborhoods, others are taking shelter in faculties or nightclubs. Zayoun has no thought the place her household will find yourself.
“I’ve only been between the two hospitals and don’t know where we’re going to actually live,” she says, reflecting on how she had deliberate to evacuate her household the morning of the Sept. 23 strike proper after they completed breakfast. “We don’t have a place, we don’t have an apartment. I’m just exhausted and I feel broken and numb.”
All she’s sure of at this second is that her household won’t ever return to the village they fled, not even after the struggle ends. All the great reminiscences from their life there are overshadowed by the horrors of the airstrike.
Lebanon’s solely burn unit
Ivana is certainly one of 22 sufferers being handled within the burn unit of the Geitaoui Hospital in Beirut. It’s a personal medical heart with the solely burn unit in Lebanon. Solely essentially the most critically injured victims are transferred to the hospital.
With Israel’s airstrikes intensifying, the hospital has greater than doubled its variety of beds, but it surely nonetheless can’t sustain with the unprecedented variety of casualties with extreme burns.
“Every day we get calls from hospitals all over the country to transfer patients, but we can’t accept everybody because of the big flow of patients,” says Dr. Ziad Sleiman, one of many hospital’s plastic and reconstructive surgeons. “We have to choose the most complicated cases and turn away the others.”
Accessible beds are simply a part of the battle.
Medical workers have fled, whereas some have been hit
Among the medical workers have misplaced their houses in airstrikes and are among the many displaced, taking day without work to select up the items of their very own lives.
“We have transferred staff from other wards and we are actively training them on how to treat burns,” says Sleiman, who has labored on the hospital for twenty years and has by no means seen it so overwhelmed and at such a financially weak time for the nation.
Earlier than the struggle, Lebanon was already mired in an financial disaster. Years of presidency and banking sector mismanagement led to the collapse of the monetary system in 2019. That triggered extreme shortages of meals, gas and drugs and set off an period of hyperinflation. Well being care prices soared making it troublesome for folks to get handled for even critical diseases and the salaries of medical doctors and nurses plunged. Medical workers left the nation in droves.
Mahmoud Dhaiwi, 23, a Lebanese military soldier who acquired injured throughout an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, is hospitalized at Geitaoui Hospital’s burn unit, in Beirut, Oct. 11.
Ali Khara for NPR
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Ali Khara for NPR
It’s in opposition to that enduring backdrop that hospitals are actually within the grips of a struggle that has killed greater than 2,500 folks and left nearly 12,000 wounded in Lebanon, in response to the nation’s Well being Ministry.
And medical staff haven’t been spared.
Clinics, ambulances, and search-and-rescue groups have been caught within the Israeli army’s line of fireplace. Greater than 150 medical and emergency staff have been killed in Lebanon since final October, when preventing first broke out between Hezbollah and Israel, in response to Lebanon’s well being minister, Dr. Firass Abiad.
Some take a look at Israel’s struggle in Gaza, with hospitals there relentlessly caught within the crossfire and greater than 800 well being care staff killed, in response to the United Nations human rights workplace, and marvel in the event that they’re staring down the identical destiny.
Dr. Sleiman can’t fathom having his hospital come underneath hearth like that. However treating victims of this struggle like 18-month-old Ivana Likbiri, counsel something is feasible.
