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Hospitals in Lebanon ill-prepared for long war

Atul Aneja

Supplies of saline water and glucose are beginning to run out "The last thing I remember was that an explosion had hurled me high in the air after which I fell heavily to the ground"

SIDON (SOUTH LEBANON): The Labib Medical Centre in Lebanon's second largest city, Sidon, is striking for its quiet air of efficiency.

The hospital is spick and span and the staff of young doctors and nurses appears focused and energetic. Specialising in surgery, its patients include some of those who have been worst affected by the three-week war between Israel and Hizbollah.

Hit by tragedy

On Monday night, the hospital received one of the victims of the Qana massacre, in which 54 persons including 37 children died, when a three-storey building in which they were sheltering, was bombed.

Mahmoud Chaloub, from Qana is a thin, bearded, middle-aged man, who has been hard hit by the tragedy. "He has lost his wife, three children, brother, nephews and nieces — in all 40 members of his extended family," says a hospital attendant.

When introduced to this correspondent, he mumbled that the war had deprived him of all his possessions, including his children. Then, as if speaking to himself, he quietly said, "all should support [Hassan] Nasrallah," referring to the leader of the Hizbollah. The medical staff explained that Mr. Chaloub had escaped because he was outside the building when the air attack came.

He had escaped with minor injuries but was being kept in the hospital because he was still in shock.

A few rooms away, Samir Charara is recovering from multiple injuries.

A resident of the border town of Bint Jbeil, he was wounded when he went to help out people who were trapped underneath the rubble of a nearby building, which had been bombed. But Israeli planes attacked again while he was still outdoors.

"The last thing I remember was that the force of an explosion had hurled me high in the air after which I fell heavily to the ground on my back." Mr. Charara received severe burns on his back and his leg was fractured.

The shrapnel from the bomb also damaged one of his kidneys. At the Labib hospital, his damaged kidney has been removed. Now surrounded by his wife and two teenaged daughters, he is happy to be alive, but is bitter about the United States and Israel whom he blames for the war.

Each room in this hospital has its own story to tell. Ibtissam Mahamma was sleeping, when at around 4 a.m. on July 23, a bomb crashed through the window of her home.

The explosion blew her leg. Her three children, six-year-old Ali, Marriam, who is three, and one year old Abbas, were injured.

Ms. Mahamma has lost her leg but she, along with all her children have been lucky to survive.

He points out that supplies of saline water and glucose are beginning to run out. So far, the Cyprus-based NGO, Doctors of the World, has alone managed to send in medical supplies.

Much more might soon be required, if the war in Lebanon prolongs.

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