Looking for Trouble

WPSR returns to Gaza: Day three by Gerri Haynes

In every meeting and nearly every encounter we are hearing about the life-threatening effects of the siege and the closure of the tunnels in Rafah. Shortages of medicine and hospital equipment routinely compromise medical care. We talked with women’s health leaders today. There is only one mammogram machine for all of the people served in Gaza through the public service. This is not a new machine and frequently needs repairs that are often not available. Still, the ingenuity of the dedicated medical care providers continues to be inspiring.

To more fully involve patients in their care, cards have been developed that show the patient the list of questions being asked by his/her physician during an interview. As the interview proceeds, the patient has the opportunity to continue to review the questions and responses. This process is proving to more fully inform and involve patients in their care. My editorial comment: we might consider this process for US health care!

Rich Grady and Ismail Zamilpa, pediatric urologists and Grant O’Keefe, general and trauma surgeon, are fully employed in surgical endeavors.

A visit to the cerebral palsy center – founded by Suhar Arafat and newly constructed was inspirational. The director, touring us through the building greeted children with great joy. The children, seeing him, obviously responded in a familiar and loving way to his attention. When I asked him if he loved his work, he said, “No.” He paused, then he said, “I adore it.” This photo of him cradling the face of a little boy does not adequately demonstrate the delight they both reflected when they first encountered each other today.

Bob Haynes spent the day teaching advanced cardiac life support to medical students. He witnessed the dean of the medical school talking and joking with a group of students in a familiar and loving way – showing great interest and pride in them. Medicine here is a family-centered process.

Each day we see friends from previous visits and are blessed to meet courageous citizens of Gaza who are working to make life more fulsome here. This evening, we talked with a young man who is staffing a project to have children employ donated cameras to document life in Gaza. They will show the world what the world is presently not seeing.