31-03-2025
A local pediatrician volunteered to treat patients in Gaza — here's why he wants to return
AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — A Denver-area pediatrician who made it home from Gaza back in January before the ceasefire started is sharing his experience.
Dr. Mohamed Kuziez said he has thoughts of returning to help treat the children with the resumption of Israeli attacks.
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He made the trip earlier this year with 11 doctors and had the chance to see how bad things were getting when there was still active combat unfolding.
'Having to triage them. Having to figure out who was going to survive. Who wasn't going to survive. Who deserved your medical attention more than others,' said Kuziez. 'That's a hard decision to make because a lot of times you're making that decision for kids.'
He is referring to his time in Gaza where he treated hundreds of children working in the pediatric ICU and ER.
'Fifty to 60 people would show up. These ambulances would oftentimes have four or five people in the back of each ambulance,' said Kuziez. 'So, the patients that hadn't survived the trip were rapidly transported to the morgue.'
He said the medical staff was working with limited capacity in terms of staff, equipment and even medicine.
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'We would give them something like Tylenol because we had very low stocks of morphine and we reserved them for surgery patients who were receiving amputations,' said Kuziez.
He shared images of bombed and burned ambulances showing the scale of destruction.
He also showed a piece of fragment he removed from a child's body after a bombing.
'Destroyed his spline, destroyed most of his pancreas,' he said. 'His large intestine and part of his small intestine. Luckily this child was able to survive because the shrapnel went through his abdomen and didn't go through his brain.'
Kuziez's goal now is to show people what's happening on the ground there.
'Having been there and forming these connections with the doctors that are there seeing firsthand the costs that these kids are paying in this conflict. It motivates me to go back,' said Kuziez. 'To this day, my friends who are physicians in Gaza, especially after Monday night, they messaged me and they tell me, 'We had such a horrible night. There's bombs firing around the hospitals. We've been unable to take a break. We've been working for 24 hours sometimes, 36 hours sometimes because once you clear one mass casualty incident another one pulls up.' So, they are tired understandably. They are disheartened.'
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He wants to do everything he can to ensure the safety of children everywhere.
'Children anywhere in the world have the right, the indomitable right to safety security and joy at the end of the day,' said Kuziez.
He said he still communicates with doctors from Gaza who are on the grounds. He along with other medical professionals have raised supplies to send there. Kuziez said that while getting to Gaza is a challenge because the nature of the conflict is different since the war started again, he plans on returning as soon as he can.
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