MER-C Medical Team Deployed to Northern Gaza's Indonesian Hospital

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) volunteer team arrived in northern Gaza last week to provide medical assistance. The team will remain in the region for approximately one month.

Since the onset of the Israeli attacks on October 7, 2023, MER-C has dispatched five Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) comprising 34 volunteers to the Gaza Strip. The latest team includes four specialist doctors, a liaison officer, a non-medical volunteer, and a local Gaza-based volunteer.

Departing from Deir al-Balah on August 7, the team traveled to Beit Lahia in northern Gaza with a World Health Organization (WHO) convoy, according to non-medical volunteer Reza Aldilla Kurniawan. 

The 24.9-kilometer journey, normally a 50-minute drive, was extended to over six hours due to stringent security protocols and checkpoints imposed by Israeli authorities. The team also made a two-hour stop at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to assess safety conditions.

“If we are not allowed to pass, we have to wait there, sometimes for more than an hour. After we’re given a green light, we are allowed to move forward again,” a neurosurgeon, dr. Dany Kurniadi Ramdhan, who is part of the medical team, said via Zoom call during a press conference at the MER-C office, Central Jakarta on Monday, August 12, 2024.

Upon arrival at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza in the afternoon of August 9, Dany said that the team immediately began treating patients, including a deceased infant and four individuals with head trauma. The hospital, previously damaged in Israeli attacks, is serving as the team's temporary accommodation.

The four specialist doctors comprise one neurosurgeon, one plastic and reconstructive surgeon, one anesthesiologist, and one internist. The three other volunteers continue their work in central Gaza, bringing the current total number of MER-C personnel in the Gaza Strip to nine, namely five medical volunteers, three non-medical volunteers, and one LO.

NABIILA AZZAHRA 

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