MSF: We amputated a child's foot in a hospital corridor and severe shortage of anesthetics in Gaza

Yesterday, Saturday, October 28, 2023, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) confirmed that some surgeries are performed in the Gaza Strip without general anesthesia for patients due to the lack of anesthetic drugs.

Leo Kans, head of the MSF mission in Jerusalem, which is responsible for the Palestinian territories, told AFP: "We lack anesthetics, we lack tranquilizers, we lack opioids. We do a lot of operations with half doses of anesthesia, which is terrible."

"A person is not as fully drugged as they should be. In some operations, sometimes, they (operations) are performed without anesthesia."

"We had to amputate half of his left foot under partial anesthesia, on the hospital floor in the corridor, because all the operating rooms were full," Kans said of an operation this week.

"The child's mother and sister were present and watched the operation (...) on the ground," he said, referring to "intolerable patient photos and videos" sent by MSF teams.

He also stated that "a 12-year-old child had 60% of his body burned (...) , and his bandages had to be changed... Doctors did this under the influence of paracetamol" only.

It is difficult for medical staff to prioritize according to the severity of injuries, he said.

"It's terrible in terms of managing pain and suffering," he stressed, calling for an urgent end to the bombing and the introduction of medical products into Gaza.

Indiscriminate shelling

Among the victims, "we receive a very large number of children and women, which leads us to say that there is indiscriminate shelling," he said.

The head of the MSF mission in the Palestinian territories said he had limited contact with MSF teams in Gaza thanks to two satellite phones. "It is almost impossible to coordinate our activities after the complete interruption of communications in the Gaza Strip" on Friday evening, he said.

Kanz stressed that the IDF's call for residents of northern Gaza to flee to the southern Gaza Strip means "asking caregivers to abandon their patients."

"In any case, there is nowhere where we can be safe," he said, stressing that heavy shelling was also heavy in the south.

MSF employs some 230 staff in the Gaza Strip.

"Many have lost their homes," Kans said. They spend much of the day looking for water and food," he said, sounding "the alarm about the suitability of water for drinking."