Dubai: On the first day of the mission, 62 children were screened in Gaza by the Little Wings Foundation.
A six-member team of both doctors and nurses from The Little Wing Foundation in Dubai embarked on a mission for a week of orthopaedic surgery in the Gaza Strip. The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) has worked with Little Wings for several years by both helping arrange their missions in Palestine and sending children to the UAE for care they cannot get locally.
The Little Wing mission in Gaza was carried out in November. On the first day, 62 children were screened by the medical team.
“Thus far, doctors received six children who underwent surgery after their screening,” said Eloise Bollack, communication officer for the PCRF.
Hesham Al Hobi, a three-year-old boy from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, suffered from cerebral palsy with tight hamstrings.
“Hesham was one of the children who had surgery to lengthen his hamstrings,” said Bollack.
She added that the Little Wings Foundation is led by surgeon Marc Sinclair who is still in Ramallah for the week-long mission. She explained that PCRF receives many volunteering doctors from the UAE who offer their medical expertise to make a difference in the lives of Palestinian children.
“I was already on PCRF’s list of volunteers, and they facilitated the mission as soon as I announced my willingness to go,” said Dr Tareq Shadid, a practising general surgeon in the UAE.
Dr Shadid said that throughout his stay in Ramallah, he met many children and young men with gunshot injuries, most caused by live bullets.
“Some of them were in the process of recovering from severe intra-abdominal gunshot injuries that would have undoubtedly been lethal had adequate surgical help not been provided,” he said.
Dr Shadid said one of the cases he assessed was a terrified 12-year-old boy who was brought to the hospital after he was shot in his left thigh.
“It appeared the live bullet had gone in at one end and exited through the other, without hitting any arteries, nerves, or bone,” he said.
The general surgeon said he felt like an integral part of the surgical team in Ramallah hospital. He added that as the days passed, his contribution made more sense after seeing the difference he was able to make in people’s lives.
