Report: Syria faces health crisis

BEIRUT – Syria’s health care system is on the brink of collapse, with medics forced to engage in “brutal medical practices” in order to save lives: amputating infants’ limbs for lack of other ways to treat their injuries or giving patients the option of being knocked out with metal bars because of lack of anesthesia, an international charity organization said in a report published Monday.

Newborns die in hospital incubators during power outages, while millions of children have been exposed to deadly diseases, some of which are preventable with vaccinations and basic medical equipment, Save the Children said.

The conflict has ravaged Syria for three years and has hit the country’s health facilities and health providers hard. Hospitals have been bombed by government forces in rebel-held areas. Armed men with the opposition have forced their way into clinics to have their fighters treated. Many doctors have fled the country to escape harassment from the warring sides.

“This humanitarian crisis has fast become a health crisis,” Save the Children’s regional director Roger Hearn said in a statement. “The desperate measures to which medical personnel are resorting to keep children alive are increasingly harrowing.”

Simply finding a doctor is a matter of luck, Hearn also said. Finding one with the necessary equipment and medication to provide proper treatment has become almost impossible, he added.

The report quotes a doctor saying that most children brought to his clinic suffer from burns and fractures. The doctor, who is not named, says they need complicated operations that cannot be performed in his small facility.

“In some cases, we have to cut their limbs off to try to save their lives, because if we don’t they will bleed to death,” the doctor told Save the Children.

Also worrying is the re-emergence of deadly and disfiguring diseases such as polio and measles, which can permanently maim and paralyze, the charity said.