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 enjoying along with her older sister on the balcony of their dwelling one current morning when Israel’s airstrikes got here.
In a flash, the wooden terrace the 2 little ladies had been enjoying on went up in flames.
“I don’t know what divine energy crammed me, however I grabbed my ladies from the hearth and threw them over the balcony to avoid wasting them,” says Ivana’s mom, Fatima Zayoun.
Zayoun’s time is now spent between two hospitals the place her daughters are receiving remedy 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 following 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 distinct 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 properties as Israel has intensified its airstrikes throughout the nation in its battle towards 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 complete household died within the strike apart from him and his mom, who can also be hospitalized there.
Ali Khara for NPR
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Ali Khara for NPR
Some have settled into new properties in new neighborhoods, others are taking shelter in colleges or nightclubs. Zayoun has no concept the place her household will find yourself.
“I’ve solely been between the 2 hospitals and don’t know the place we’re going to really stay,” 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 spot, we don’t have an condo. I’m simply exhausted and I really feel damaged 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 conflict ends. All the nice recollections from their life there are overshadowed by the horrors of the airstrike.
Lebanon’s solely burn unit
Ivana is one in every of 22 sufferers being handled within the burn unit of the Geitaoui Hospital in Beirut. It’s a personal medical middle 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.
“On daily basis we get calls from hospitals everywhere in the nation to switch sufferers, however we are able to’t settle for all people due to the massive circulate of sufferers,” says Dr. Ziad Sleiman, one of many hospital’s plastic and reconstructive surgeons. “We now have to decide on essentially the most sophisticated instances and switch away the others.”
Obtainable beds are simply a part of the wrestle.
Medical employees have fled, whereas some have been hit
Among the medical employees have misplaced their properties in airstrikes and are among the many displaced, taking day off to select up the items of their very own lives.
“We now have transferred employees from different wards and we’re actively coaching them on easy methods to deal with 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 conflict, 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, gasoline and drugs and set off an period of hyperinflation. Well being care prices soared making it troublesome for individuals to get handled for even critical diseases and the salaries of medical doctors and nurses plunged. Medical employees 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 towards that enduring backdrop that hospitals are actually within the grips of a conflict that has killed greater than 2,500 individuals and left virtually 12,000 wounded in Lebanon, based on 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 navy’s line of fireside. Greater than 150 medical and emergency staff have been killed in Lebanon since final October, when preventing first broke out between Hezbollah and Israel, based on Lebanon’s well being minister, Dr. Firass Abiad.
Some have a look at Israel’s conflict in Gaza, with hospitals there relentlessly caught within the crossfire and greater than 800 well being care staff killed, based on the United Nations human rights workplace, and surprise in the event that they’re staring down the identical destiny.
Dr. Sleiman can’t fathom having his hospital come beneath fireplace like that. However treating victims of this conflict like 18-month-old Ivana Likbiri, counsel something is feasible.