Israel-Gaza war: growing number of wounded face impossible choice, either lose a limb or risk death
- Gaza health officials say overwhelmed hospitals at times had to amputate limbs, which in normal times could have been saved
- In other cases, the severe nature of the injuries meant some limbs needed to be removed as soon as possible to prevent death from blood poisoning
The doctors gave Shaimaa Nabahin an impossible choice: lose your left leg or risk death.
The 22-year-old had been hospitalised in Gaza for around a week, after her ankle was partially severed in an Israeli air strike, when doctors told her she was suffering from blood poisoning. Nabahin chose to maximise her chances of survival, and agreed to have her leg amputated 15 centimetres (6 inches) below the knee.
The decision upended life for the ambitious university student, as it has for untold others among the more than 54,500 war-wounded who faced similar gut-wrenching choices.
“My whole life has changed,” said Nabahin, speaking from her bed at the al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. “If I want to take a step or go anywhere, I need help.”
The World Health Organization and the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza say amputations have become commonplace during the Israel-Gaza war, now in its 12th week, but could not offer precise figures. At the hospital in Deir al-Balah, dozens of recent amputees are in various stages of treatment and recovery.