5 April 2018
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Last Friday was the bloodiest day in Gaza since Israel’s 2014 offensive. Thousands of Palestinians peacefully gathered close to the border with Israel for the first event in the ‘Great March of Return’ - a series of mass peaceful protests leading up to the 70th anniversary of the Nakba on 15 May.
Israeli forces responded with live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas, killing at least 14 protesters. Almost 1,500 Palestinians were injured, many severely, with more than 1,000 transferred to hospital.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is greatly concerned by the kinds of wounds described by hospital staff. As many as 758 Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds, the majority of these to their legs.
MAP has been helping Gaza’s health service prepare for such complex injuries since 2014 when, in partnership with IDEALS, we sent a team of orthopaedic surgeons from King’s College Hospital in London to Gaza. There, they began conducting vital operations for patients, and training a local team of limb reconstruction specialists, including surgeons, theatre technicians and nurses.
Their regular visits have led to the establishment of Gaza’s first dedicated Limb Reconstruction Unit at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, with more recent support for a second unit at European Gaza Hospital in the south. Through this project, we have also helped to train Palestinian physiotherapists, who are playing an essential role in helping people to recover better from their injuries and regain mobility and functioning.
This ongoing support is vital to treating the high number of Palestinians suffering shattered bones as a result of Israeli forces’ violent response to the protests. We have already released a shipment of surgical equipment to hospitals in Gaza, which was used by the MAP and IDEALS-trained surgical team at Al Shifa within the first 24 hours of responding to the crisis.
To help wounded limbs to heal, the surgeons inserted pins into patients’ damaged bones and secured these with external frames, known as fixators. External fixators provide stability to the wounded limb, offering significant pain relief to patients. These frames will remain for six to eight weeks, after which healthcare professionals will assess what further care is required. MAP will seek to replace our released pre-positioned surgical limb reconstruction equipment and ensure the Limb Reconstruction Unit can care for future casualties, but to do so, we need your support.
It is not yet known how many patients will need extensive secondary limb reconstruction, where the treatment will cost approximately £4,480 per patient. However, it is likely that the numbers needing this treatment will be in the hundreds. Some injured protesters may require a second frame, known as Taylor Spatial Frames.
These are fitted with screws to allow deformed or shortened bones to be remodelled and straightened. They may also need DBX Putty, which acts as a substitute bone, and a paste known as Stimulan, which helps to prevent or treat infection in the bone which can be a major cause of disability in patients with limb injuries.
A member of the limb reconstruction team in Gaza said that they will be managing many of the cases that have been admitted to hospital for many years to come.
The protests in Gaza are intended to continue for 45 days, leading up to the 70th anniversary of the Nakba on 15 May. As of Thursday 5 April, protesters continued to be present close to the border.
Please support MAP’s response to the situation in Gaza, procuring out-of-stock equipment, providing training and supporting emergency departments in Gaza, by making a donation today.
