Video courtesy Eva Bartlett
Video date: 30 August, 2024. Speaker: Dr. Yipong Ge
Transcript by Basma Qaddour.
When I was in Gaza in February this year, I was working at two primary care clinics in Rafah, both of which barely had enough medications and supplies to appropriately treat patients. When we arrived, there were no antibiotics. This means no life and limb-saving treatment for patients with bacterial infections.
We saw multiple cases of suspected Ricketts disease. This is severe vitamin D deficiency due to malnutrition affecting bone growth. There are patients that could walk before and were no longer walking. There are patients that should have been walking due to their developmental milestones but were not walking due to severe malnutrition.
One of the acutely malnourished children I saw was the sickest child that I’ve ever seen in my entire medical career and training in the clinic. They were nine to ten years old, being carried in by his mother, unable to walk. I could wrap my entire index finger and thumb around their upper arm and lower leg. They had not been eating for four days due to nausea and vomiting and were also showing neurological signs of decline. If I had seen this patient in Canada, they would have been immediately admitted to a pediatric hospital for care and refeeding and possibly even to the pediatric intensive care unit for monitoring. However, it broke my heart after speaking to the local doctor that all we could provide would be IV fluid hydration. This is what we were essentially giving every child that appeared malnourished, dehydrated, or ill in the clinic. These necessary conditions for life, food, clean water, shelter, especially for young children, were withheld intentionally to make the conditions in Gaza entirely unimaginably unlivable and un-survivable for everyone, but acutely impact those that are most vulnerable. Newborns, young children, people who are pregnant, older adults, people with chronic diseases and disabilities and mental health conditions.
The first case of polio in 25 years in Gaza in a 10-month-old child now has developed paralysis in the lower extremities this is irreversible paralysis this is genocide by weaponizing previously eliminated highly infectious diseases to cause permanent disability and death i am an eyewitness to genocide in Gaza.
Israel is committing genocide while our leaders remain impotent to act in any meaningful way we demand an immediate lifting of the blockade of humanitarian aid an immediate immediate two-way arms embargo, compliance with the decisions of the International Court of Justice. This must be immediate. The children of Gaza depend on it. Justin Trudeau, Melanie Jolie, your inaction is complicity and genocide. Canadian Medical Association, your silence is manufactured consent for genocide.
READ MORE:
Canadian Doctor Returns From Gaza Describes What He Saw l Dr. Yipeng Ge
