Gaza children get foreign treatment at home
Australian surgeon who operated on Palestinian children says his 10-day mission 'overwhelming'
JABALYA CAMP, Gaza Strip - An Australian surgeon operated on Monday on Palestinian children in need of care unavailable in the Gaza Strip or not readily attainable elsewhere due to Israeli restrictions on the Hamas-ruled area.
Dr. Paddy Dewan, an Australian sent to the Gaza Strip by the Kind Cuts for Kids Foundation, said patients requiring specialist treatment and local doctors and nurses in need of advanced training lent urgency to a 10-day mission he described as "overwhelming".
"I am teaching nurses and doctors how to look after those patients. They are fast learners," Dewan told Reuters inside the surgery room with two Palestinian assistant doctors.
In one life-saving operation, Dewan removed a blockage that was stopping a two-day-old Palestinian baby from ingesting. So far Dewan has operated on nearly 15 children and seen 250 patients in al-Awda hospital in Jabalya refugee camp, where 100,000 people live, in the northern Gaza Strip.
"Most of the cases Dr. Dewan has seen have been referred to him by Palestinian specialist doctors," said Reyad al-Adassi, a Palestinian health official coordinating the visit.
"Those doctors either could not do the surgery or operated on the patients and there were setbacks and complications," he said.
"A big part of these cases were to have been transferred out of Gaza, but many families could not get an Israeli permit, so they rushed over to us," Adassi said.
'Many families couldn't get an Israeli permit'
Israel tightened travel restrictions on Gazans after Hamas Islamists, who have rejected Western demands to recognize Israel and renounce violence, wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in June.
The northern Gaza Strip, where militants have been launching rockets against Israel, has been a frequent target of Israeli military raids.
The World Health Organization has said Israel has turned away more sick Palestinians from the Gaza Strip seeking treatment since Hamas seized control and several have died each month unnecessarily.
Israel has not provided figures for how many sick Gazans were granted permits last year. It has stressed it was still coordinating the transfer of Palestinian patients from Gaza into Israel "even under fire and under threats."
Thousands of Palestinians have been treated in the Jewish state over the years.
