Misrata hospital running on empty

The tragedy that has befallen the Libyan city of Misrata is apparent in many ways, yet the deplorable situation of the city’s only hospital offers insight into the brutal practices of the militias of Muammar Qaddafi against the protestors.

The Misrata Central Hospital was under maintenance before the protests began on February 17, so medical services were limited to a number of small clinics. One of those clinics has eventually become the only hospital in the city after the unrest.

Like several other places in the city, this clinic is not immune from the heavy pounding of the Qaddafi militia. This necessitated the transfer of the city’s main hospital once again, this time to al-Hekma private hospital.

The 60-bed Al-Hekma is not able to accommodate the wounded that were arriving so doctors erected an emergency tent to apply first aid to the injured before transferring them to the relevant departments.

The most critical problem the hospital faces is the scarcity of operation rooms, said surgeon Mahmoud Amer.

“There are also not enough doctors to perform surgeries and we are short of anesthesiologists and sterilization teams,” he told Al Arabiya.

A few days ago, Libyan physicians working abroad and specializing in neurosurgery, heart and vascular surgery and orthopedics arrived at the hospital to offer assistance. They all arrived by sea, as that is the only possible way to enter the city now.

Several medical students have also volunteered to attend to the increasing number of wounded at the hospital, said Mohamed al-Shawsh, one of the volunteers.

“We are more than 30 students of different ages and we’re here to help with the shortage in medical teams,” he told Al Arabiya.

Mr. Shawsh added that the situation at the hospital is tragic.
“In one day only, we received around 125 wounded and more than 16 dead,” he said.

According to Khaled Abu Falgha, a physician and member of Misrata’s medical committee said that the hospital keeps running out of medical supplies because of the numbers of cases that are flocking here on a daily basis.

“There is also a problem with physicians because the ones we have are extremely exhausted and they work nonstop every day,” he told Al Arabiya. “The hospital receives on average 45 patients a day, most of them civilians—women, children and the elderly.”

Dr. Abu Falgha said that so far more than 10 children had died in the city since the beginning of the uprising and that most injuries were of a critical nature.

“Most injuries sustained are the result of cluster and fission bombs as well as mortar shells. We also received charred bodies that could not be identified,” he said.
Other bodies, he added, were those of close range shots, in the head, the chest, and the neck.

The Al Arabiya team went to the second floor of the hospital where Farag Tarina, the physician in charge of the operating rooms and the intensive care unit, received it.

“We only have five operating rooms that are not properly equipped and two intensive care units which are equipped with only three beds and a mechanical ventilation machine,” Dr. Tarina said.

Due to the huge volume of patients arriving here for treatment, something the hospital has not dealt with before, he said that patients were not being given the proper treatment at the intensive care units.

“We are forced to discharge patients who get slightly better in order to admit others who arrive in critical conditions,” he said.

The situation at the hospital has gotten slightly better after ships heading for Turkey were able to take 257 of the injured and another heading for Tunisia took 59 patients. Several others were transferred to Benghazi, the center of the Libyan revolution.

According to the hospital administration, the hospital has so far received 327 dead bodies and more than 3,000 injured.
Libya’s population is just under 6.5 million.

According to Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, the conflict in Libya has so far killed 10,000 people and wounded 55,000. Mr. Frattini was citing figures compiled by the Benghazi-based opposition government.

(Sonia Farid of Al Arabiya can be reached at: [email protected])