logo
Israeli bombing in Gaza ‘worse than ever': UK doctor after latest mission

Israeli bombing in Gaza ‘worse than ever': UK doctor after latest mission

Yahoo9 hours ago

On a typical day at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, Victoria Rose, a British surgeon, would wake up before dawn.
'Because the bombing would start at four,' she said, now back in London, having just wrapped up her third humanitarian mission to Gaza since Israel's war began in October 2023.
Over almost four weeks in May, she usually operated on 12 or 13 patients per 14-hour shift, unless there was a mass casualty incident overnight, meaning even longer shifts and more patients.
By comparison, in London hospitals, she treats a maximum of three patients per day.
'It's operating nonstop in Gaza,' she said.
Recalling some of her many patients, she treated 11-year-old Adam al-Najjar, the sole surviving child of Dr Alaa al-Najjar, whose nine other children and husband, Hamdi, also a doctor, were killed in an attack in Khan Younis last month.
She vividly remembers two brothers with lower limb injuries, Yakoob and Mohammed, who were the sole survivors of their family, and an eight-year-old girl named Aziza who was orphaned.
'She had a burn on her face and her shoulder, and somebody found her walking the streets and brought her in,' said Rose, who specialises in plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Rose and a team of medics also worked tirelessly to save the leg of a seven-year-old girl who, after an explosion, 'was missing her knee … it was like looking at the back of her leg without the bone in'.
Having cleaned the area, removed dead skin and muscle, and dressed the wound, the girl returned three more times for further treatment, but ultimately, her limb was amputated.
Al Jazeera spoke with Dr Rose about the growing intensity of Israeli bombardment, the impact of malnutrition which has been exacerbated by a three-month aid blockade, deaths and gunshot wounds she saw among those who desperately tried to get rations via a new mechanism backed by the United States and Israel, and her sense of frustration that as the death toll rises and the scale of injuries is well documented, disbelief in Palestinian suffering prevails.
Al Jazeera: How did you feel entering Gaza this time around?
Victoria Rose: Definitely once we got in, the bombing was far worse than it's ever been, and it was far, far louder, closer, more constant than it's ever been. The drones – it was as if they were on me. They were constantly there and really loud to the point that it was difficult to have a conversation if you were outside.
Al Jazeera: What do the types of injuries you saw reveal about the current intensity of the bombing?
Rose: This time, the injuries seemed to be from the heart of an explosion. People had been blown up, and bits of them had been blown off.
Last summer, it was far more shrapnel wounds – a bomb had gone off in the vicinity, and something had been whipped up and then it ejected at them in a missile-type fashion and hit them and done some damage to their bodies. Much more survivable, reconstructable-type injuries, whereas these appeared to be far more direct hits on people.
Al Jazeera: You have volunteered three times during the genocide, including in March and August last year. The death toll, now at about 55,000, continues to rise at haste. Was this the most challenging trip?
Rose: This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst. The volume of patients is more and the kids are more. The number of kids has gone up exponentially. They've doubled since the March (2024) trip – the number of children that I've seen.
During the first trip (in March 2024), I thought I was seeing loads of children, but this trip surpassed that.
Al Jazeera: How would you describe Nasser Hospital?
Rose: It's a very similar scenario, very similar vibe to being in a hospital anywhere, but it's just so packed.
It's everybody; it's like the whole population is in there.
(Doctors are usually) very selective with the people that we hospitalise. They're normally older, or got cancer, or complications from diabetes or heart attacks – that's normally who gets hospital beds in the UK. But there, it could be everybody on your road. It's just normal people that have been blown up. Healthy people that are otherwise really fit and well, and now have been blown up.
It's quite bizarre to hospitalise somebody that was fit yesterday and, well, now is missing an arm or part of an arm.
Al Jazeera: You were in Gaza when people desperately trying to secure food aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new mechanism backed by Israel and the US, were attacked. Many were killed. You did some media interviews at the time. What did you witness and experience?
Rose: The bulk of the victims had gunshot wounds. They were shot in the stomach, shot in the leg, shot in the arm.
After the GHF shooting, when (the victims) all came in, immediately the next journalist (I spoke to) was saying to me that 'Israel has denied that they've shot anyone and you know, they're saying that it's the Palestinians shooting each other'. And then they sort of said, 'Nobody's been killed', and I was standing in the emergency department with 30 body bags, thinking, you can't lie like this. You just can't.
Al Jazeera: Many in Gaza are vulnerable to starvation, and thousands of children are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to the United Nations. How does this affect patients and hospital staff?
Rose: Everybody's lost weight. They will tell you, 'I am now five or 10 kg lower in weight.'
My medical students I was there with in August, the girls are just so thin now. They're all in their 20s, and all of them looked really as if they'd lost significant amounts of weight.
But the children are really small. They're really skinny.
Sixty children have died at Nasser Hospital of malnutrition.
It is mainly the children that are lactose intolerant or have some other disease as well, because none of the only formula milk that's getting in is suitable for children with lactose intolerance. Then you have children that have other diseases on top of that, which stop them from being able to take normal milk. That was quite shocking.
The trauma patients, which is who I was seeing, were also really small. No fat on them at all, quite a bit of muscle wasting. And they didn't really heal very well. It seemed to take a lot longer this time than it did in August for wounds to heal.
There were lots of infections, a huge number of infections; with malnutrition, you get a dampening of the immune system. It's one of the areas that's affected the most. You can't mount a good immune response.
On top of that, all the wounds were dirty anyway because everyone's living in a tent and there's no sanitation, no clean water. You're starting in a really difficult position, and then you've run out of antibiotics. We only had three types of antibiotics that we could use, and none of them would have been the first-line choice if we'd have been in the UK.
Al Jazeera: How would you describe the morale among the doctors you worked with?
Rose: Really bad now. So many of them said to me, 'I'd rather die than carry on.'
So many of them want a ceasefire, and I think would be prepared to do whatever it takes to get a ceasefire now.
They are at their lowest. They've all moved 15 times. They've all lost significant members of the family – these guys have lost kids. Their houses are completely destroyed. It's really, really difficult times for them.
Al Jazeera: What are your fears for Gaza?
Rose: It's a man-made humanitarian crisis, so it could be man-stopped, and that's what needs to happen.
This could be turned off immediately if people put enough pressure on the right governments, the right leaders.
I think, if we don't turn it off soon, there won't be a Gaza and there certainly won't be Palestinians in Gaza.
It's very difficult to have any conversations with Palestinians about the future because they can't really see it.
Note: This interview was lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Just how psychopathic are surgeons?
Just how psychopathic are surgeons?

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Just how psychopathic are surgeons?

These are the people we trust to hold a sharpened knife above our bare bellies and press down until they see blood. We let them tinker with our hearts, brains and bowels while we lie unconscious beneath their gloved hands. Surgeons live in a world of terrifying margins, where the difference of a millimetre can be the difference between life and death. That level of precision demands an extraordinary calm, or what you could also call a cold detachment. But what happens when that same self-possession curdles into something darker? In recent weeks, two surgeons have made headlines for all the wrong reasons. In France, Joël Le Scouarnec was sentenced for abusing hundreds of children – some while they lay anaesthetised in his care. In the UK, plastic surgeon Peter Brooks was convicted of the attempted murder of fellow consultant Graeme Perks, whom he stabbed after breaking into his home in Nottinghamshire. Today, Brooks was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years at Loughborough Courthouse. It would, of course, be absurd to taint an entire profession with the acts of two individuals. But it does resurface a long-standing, uncomfortable question: might the very traits that make a surgeon brilliant also mask something far more troubling? 'When people hear the word psychopath, they tend to think of serial killers and rapists,' says Dr Kevin Dutton, a psychologist and the author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths. 'But the truth is that certain psychopathic traits – focus, emotional dispassion, ruthlessness, self-confidence – can predispose you to success, and in an operating theatre, they really come to the fore.' Dutton has spent much of his career trying to prove that 'bad psychopaths' – people who have these characteristics but who can't regulate them – are the ones who commit crimes. A 'good psychopath', by contrast, is someone who can dial those qualities up and down at whim. He recalls one neurosurgeon who was regularly brought to tears by bits of classical music, but who also said, 'Emotion is entropy. I have hunted it to extinction over the years.' Similarly, a cardiothoracic surgeon told him that once a patient was under, he no longer saw them as a person – just a piece of meat. 'Once you care, you are walking an emotional tightrope,' says Dutton, 'but if you see the human body in front of you as a puzzle to solve, then you are more likely to save their life.' Gabriel Weston, a London-based surgeon and the author of Direct Red: A Surgeon's Story, describes her profession as one that requires you to 'flick off a switch'. Sent to boarding school at a young age (much of British surgery is the product of elite schools), Weston learnt early how to detach emotionally – a skill she found served her well in the theatre. 'If you asked my family, they'd say I'm very emotional in that I cry in films or at art or literature,' she says. 'But there's a ruthless part of me. I use that in surgery – and in other parts of life where emotion just gets in the way.' Over time, Weston learnt to distinguish between two kinds of surgeons: those who switch their feelings back on once they leave the operating room, and those who never do. 'They don't just have psychopathic traits,' she says. 'They live in that space permanently.' They can also come with a reputation for being not just difficult, but dangerous. Harry Thompson*, a British abdominal surgeon, describes a world of towering egos and simmering aggression. 'If you think about it, all surgeons were in the top five of their class,' he says. 'They are all very competitive, and many play sports: they want to prove they are better than everyone. And if you are at the forefront of major surgery, you think you are invincible. It's a boiling-house environment of jealousy, envy and hatred.' He recalls one consultant who stabbed a plain-clothes policeman with a disposable scalpel after being stopped for speeding en route to the theatre. Another smashed a ward office clock when a nurse arrived five minutes late. Physical assaults were, he says, more common than you would think. 'I was in one operation when a student, John, was an hour and a half late, because he overslept. The surgeon thumped the student's head against the theatre wall until he was unconscious, screamed, 'Nobody move!' then started kicking him. No one ever saw John again.' Nor is the patient always spared. 'When I was training, I saw one surgeon thump a patient for removing a drain from his own bottom after an operation because it had become painful,' says Thompson. 'The patient only admitted this (in tears) after the surgeon had made the nurses and junior doctors line up and interrogated each one in turn about who had done it.' Thompson used to work with Simon Bramhall – the liver surgeon who made headlines and was later struck off for branding his initials onto patients' livers using a laser. 'Simon had always been a bit mad,' says Thompson. 'He was fascinated by the programme Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and he always wore a white suit [like the character Hopkirk], tie, shoes and socks.' As for tattooing his patients' organs: the initials were discovered by his colleagues only during a second surgery when his once-subtle etching was now grotesquely enlarged by liver damage. While Bramhall's actions sparked public outrage, some in the medical community were nonplussed. Perhaps because this is a far more commonplace occurrence than we realise: an article in Harper's Magazine cited examples of anonymous ophthalmic surgeons who had lasered their initials onto retinas, and orthopaedic surgeons who had etched theirs into bone cement. 'Why would you do that? Ego, of course,' says Dutton, 'and it isn't incidental in surgery. It's selected for. From the moment you start training, you have to fight – quite literally – for your space at the operating table.' Dutton researched which of the various disciplines within the profession had the highest rates of psychopathy, and the results are revealing. Number one is neurosurgery (which is bad luck for any fans of Grey's Anatomy), followed by cardiothoracic or heart surgery and then orthopaedic. 'The last one is brutal as you have to smash people's bones,' says Dutton. 'Cardio more than anything is about life and death, but neurosurgery is particularly interesting to me. I think it's because this is the only branch of surgery where, if something goes wrong, you leave the patient permanently crippled or blinded or incapacitated, so only very few people can take such a calculated risk under pressure.' And though these traits are often seen as typically male, women are by no means exempt. Weston says the most difficult surgeon she ever worked under was a woman. 'She was very attractive and well-liked – mostly for being gorgeous and good at her job – but privately she made my life hell. Maybe she didn't like another woman being on the team but she did that horrible thing that women do of presenting this incredibly benign face while being very cruel in private. For months, she blamed me for mistakes that weren't mine, stole credit for my diagnoses, and made me feel like my surgical skills were terrible. She was truly villainous.' And yet, Weston admits, the operating theatre offers her a rare freedom: 'If you are a woman who is quite tough and unsentimental, surgery is a really amazing environment in which you can be yourself. There are many areas of my life – mainly motherhood, but also writing – where there is an expectation that I will be softer than I am. Like Simone de Beauvoir, I find it very freeing not to be pleasant.' Perhaps there is something in all of this (criminal and violent behaviour aside) that we, as patients, secretly find reassuring. We don't want our surgeons to hesitate. We don't want them to be emotional or anxious. We want them to be brilliant: laser-focused, supremely confident, even terrifying if that's what it takes to save us. In life, we dislike arrogance. On the operating table, many of us yearn for it. 'I had one boss,' says Thompson, 'a French surgeon. He used to say: 'There are the porters, the nurses, the managers – and then there are the surgeons. Above them, God. And above God? Me.'' *Names have been changed Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

King Charles Gets the Keys to the Castle in Lancaster — and Keeps Up the Pace amid Cancer Treatment
King Charles Gets the Keys to the Castle in Lancaster — and Keeps Up the Pace amid Cancer Treatment

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

King Charles Gets the Keys to the Castle in Lancaster — and Keeps Up the Pace amid Cancer Treatment

King Charles greets crowds during a visit to Lancaster Castle in northwest England The 76-year-old monarch is carrying out a day of engagements amid ongoing cancer treatment He's set to lead the royal family at Trooping the Colour on Saturday, riding in a carriage instead of on horsebackKing Charles arrived at Lancaster Castle on June 9 to take part in a historic ceremony as he prepares to lead the family at the Trooping the Colour parade on June 14. The monarch, 76, was warmly welcomed by schoolchildren, well-wishers and a military band serenade as he arrived for a day packed with official engagements in northwest England. At the historic castle, Charles took part in the Ceremony of the Keys, a tradition dating back to 1851 under Queen Victoria. Notably, in 2015, his late mother, Queen Elizabeth, was presented with the keys in a similar ceremony at the site. The King has been keeping an active timetable of duties despite his ongoing cancer treatment. The visit comes amid a period for the royal family. On June 14, Charles will lead the family at the annual Trooping the Colour parade. The monarch will ride in a carriage, rather than on horseback, for the second year in a row, Buckingham Palace confirmed to PEOPLE. Senior royals will also gather for the Order of the Garter service on June 16. The King, who completed a two-day visit to Canada with Camilla in late May, is undergoing regular cancer treatment that is enabling him to continue with his duties. After the end of that visit, in which he opened the Canadian parliament, aides said, "The thing you learn about this illness is that you just manage it, and that's what he does." 'Medical science has made incredible advances, and I genuinely see no difference in him," the aide added at the time. "As long as you just do what the doctors say, just live your life as normal as possible. That's exactly what he is doing." Monday's visit is part of celebrations honoring the county that gives its name to the Duchy of Lancaster. Since 1399, the Duchy — covering over 41,000 acres across Cheshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Southern Yorkshire, and more — has been a private estate held by the reigning monarch. (It parallels the Duchy of Cornwall, which supports Prince William's work and lifestyle as heir to the throne.) Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Inside the castle grounds, Charles met local businesses showcasing regional specialties such as farmhouse cheeses, breed-specific wool yarns supporting the British wool industry and handcrafted furniture. Charles met businesses like and view displays showcasing their work in the region, including a farmhouse cheeses company, and an enterprise that makes breed-specific yarns that help to support the British wool industry and a furniture maker. Later, at a reception, the King connected with volunteers and staff from across the county, including representatives from Escape 2 Make, an organization offering creative workshops to support young people facing life's pressures. He also spoke with members of St John's Hospice, the Lancaster Literature Festival and a local World War II veteran. Read the original article on People

Hospital and medic convicted over patient death
Hospital and medic convicted over patient death

Yahoo

time5 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Hospital and medic convicted over patient death

A hospital trust and a staff member have been found guilty of health and safety failings over the death of a young woman in a mental health unit. Alice Figueiredo, 22, was being treated at Goodmayes Hospital, east London, when she took her own life in July 2015, having previously made many similar attempts. Following a seven-month trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found that not enough was done by the North East London Foundation NHS Trust (NELFT) or ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa to prevent Alice from killing herself. The trust was cleared of the more serious charge of corporate manslaughter, while Aninakwa, 53, of Grays in Essex, was cleared of gross negligence manslaughter. The jury deliberated for 24 days to reach all the verdicts, setting a joint record in the history of British justice, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Both the trust and Aninakwa were convicted under the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was only the second time an NHS trust has faced a corporate manslaughter charge. Speaking directly to Alice's mother and stepfather after the verdict, Judge Richard Marks KC said it was clear from the evidence that she was an extremely special young woman and "their immense love for her had been very apparent". He also said he hoped they felt the case had been dealt with fully and that would "provide some consolation". This article contains material that some may find distressing. If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, support and advice is available via the BBC Action Line. Alice was admitted to a mental health ward at Goodmayes Hospital in Ilford in February 2015. She was under close observation on the Hepworth Ward, then managed by Aninakwa. In the five months leading up to her death, she attempted suicide using plastic or bin bags on 18 occasions, mostly taking bin bags from the same shared toilet, the Old Bailey heard. The hospital had previously acknowledged the risk to patients of keeping bin bags on the ward and they were subsequently taken out of patient bedrooms. However, despite warnings from Alice's family, they were not removed from the communal toilet, which was left unlocked. On 7 July 2015, at her 19th attempt, she took her own life using a bin bag taken from the toilet. During the trial, prosecutors said that not only was Alice repeatedly able to self-harm while she was in hospital, but that these incidents were not properly recorded or assessed. The court also heard there were concerns about Aninakwa's communication, efficiency, clinical and leadership skills. The trust had previously placed him on a performance improvement plan for three years, which ended in December 2014. In addition, there was a high turnover of agency staff on the ward, the court heard. Alice's mother Jane Figueiredo described the "intense pain" of being told about her death, saying it was the moment when "your entire life changes forever". Her family prefer to remember the clever, creative, musical and funny young woman, who they say was full of life. "She had the most amazing quick wit and sense of humour," Mrs Figueiredo said. "She used to be able to make me laugh more than anybody in the world. And I really miss that." Alice had experienced periods of deep depression since she was a teenager and also developed an eating disorder. She was admitted to hospital on several occasions and her condition had always improved after treatment, her family said. Her stepfather Max Figueiredo said it was a question of managing her illness and "trusting the medical profession to make the right decisions". Mrs Figueiredo says she raised concerns about her daughter's care verbally and in writing on a number of occasions to the hospital and to Mr Aninakwa. After Alice died, she said the family found it very difficult to get answers about what happened. For nearly a decade they gathered evidence and pressed both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to take action. NELFT is only the second NHS trust in England to have been charged with corporate manslaughter, with the only previous prosecution collapsing after two weeks. It is particularly hard to bring corporate manslaughter charges against a large, complex organisation, says Dr Victoria Roper – an associate professor at Northumbria University, who studies this area of the law. This is due to their complex organisational structures, says Dr Victoria Roper, a corporate lawyer and associate professor at Northumbria University. Corporate manslaughter charges are "reserved for the very worst management failings leading to death," she says. The larger the organisation, the more difficult it is to show that senior management have had "any hands-on involvement in events". However, she says public bodies, the police and the CPS will be keeping a close eye on this case to see what can be learned from it. Mental health campaigners believe Alice's case highlights the poor care too many mental health patients receive. Lucy Schonegevel, director of policy and practice at the mental health charity Rethink, says it is a "devastating reminder that we don't yet have a mental health system fit for the 21st century" and "people expect to be looked after and kept safe" on an inpatient unit. But she says the charity is aware of many cases of patients being failed. Alice's family believes any failing in cases such as hers must be transparent if they are to lead to improvements in mental health care, and they say they will keep pressing for that. "It's never been about vengeance," Mr Figueiredo says. "It's always been about justice and truth and accountability. "That's what has driven us." The trust was found guilty of failing to provide mental health in-patient services in such a way as to ensure that persons not in its employment, namely the patients, were not exposed to risks to their health or safety in connection with the use for acts of self-harm of bin liners or similar plastic bags on an acute psychiatric ward. Akinawa was found guilty of failure to take reasonable care for the health and safety of other persons affected by his acts or omissions at work, namely the patients, by taking no sufficient steps to remove bin bags from the ward that were accessible to and capable of use for acts of self-harm, and failing to ensure that incitements of self-harm were recorded, considered and addressed. Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Removing patient risks on wards not simple - court Manslaughter trial ward manager 'soft and gentle' Staff would not have foreseen patient death - court North East London NHS Foundation Trust HM Courts and Tribunals Service

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store