Kahler (fifth from left), Abughnaim (sixth from left), and Ahmed (seventh from left) Javell Sheppard
After returning from a medical mission trip in Gaza, three doctors express their life-changing experiences on the front-lines amidst an active genocide at the April 17 “Doctors from Gaza” event.
SJP hosted the panel, inviting Thaer Ahmad, M.D., Tammy Abughnaim, M.D., and John Kahler, M.D., to discuss treating injured Gazans as they survive the atrocities of war.
During the event, Ahmad mentioned the intensity of war crimes have escalated in Gaza, healthcare workers have become a systematic target of violence, including 484 killed and 200 abducted.
Currently, 33,899 Palestinains have been killed, with an additional 76,664 wounded since Oct.7
Kahler, a retired pediatrician, co-founded MedGlobal, an organization that opened 10 shelters to care for acute, mental, and non-communicable diseases and wounds for 15-30,000 patients. MedGlobal also has a nutrition center to aid malnourished children.
Ahmad, an emergency medical physician and Director of Health and Medical Ethics at the emergency department at Advocate Christ Hospital, spent three weeks in Khan Younis at the Nasser hospital. Ahmad previously worked at Shifa hospital, which has been raided twice, damaged, and destroyed.
The attacks on medical centers threaten to displace Gazans, since many use hospitals as shelters. “When I went to the Al-Aqsa hospital, there were 70 people who just called the E.R. home. That’s where they would sleep and where they lived with their families many times,” says Abughnaim, an emergency medical physician across Chicago and Northern Illinois.
Abughnaim visited Gaza for the first time in Oct. 2023 to train ultrasound to physicians, which led to two weeks spending providing aid.
“One of the first things that I noticed working in the emergency department in the first four hours, there were six mass casualty events in multiple airstrikes, quadcopter attacks, and drone attacks. Just in four hours,” she says. “You don’t know when the next airstrike is coming in.”
For a year, Al-Aqsa hospital had only one ventilator. “You have to make decisions essentially on who lives and dies, and these are decisions that are not easy because you’re choosing between adults and children,” commented Abughnaim.
Abughnaim noticed how many physicians are young, as older doctors were either killed, displaced or physically exhausted. Other times, patients have died due to a lack of specialists and hospital personnel altogether.
“Targeting of the health care systems is systematically targeting the intentional and deliberate destruction of the healthcare systems, it’s really how you ensure maximum damage to both lives and infrastructure,” says Abughnaim.
Ahmad recalls hundreds of aid trucks parked outside Egypt, while Israel would reject the approval of supplies entering Gaza for any reason. Even when trucks were approved, they were inspected at least six times and sometimes rejected after their approval status, causing life-saving supplies to be sent back despite the medical shortages.
Antibiotics, syringes, oxygen, and delivery systems were denied at the Gazan border. Ahmad treated a paralyzed elderly woman who was shot in the spine by a drone on the floor from the lack of carts.
Kahler explains hospitals require fuel, water, nutrition, and sanitation, but in Gaza, they have all been destroyed. He recalls Nasser hospital being shut down because the electricity stopped, causing a foot of sewage water to flood on the bottom floor.
On April 2, Ahmad left during a meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Ahmad was told that Biden hadn’t heard from anyone on the ground since Oct. 7. Ahmad hadn’t been briefed upon his arrival from Gaza to share his story about the situation happening in Rafah.
Ahmad and Harris had a conversation regarding a ceasefire. Harris wanted an immediate (6-week) ceasefire, but Ahmad asserted a permanent ceasefire was required. He remarked, “How sadistic is it to say we’re going to feed them for six weeks and then we’ll go back to killing them?”
Ahmad commented to Biden, “Me and you only agree on one thing and it’s the number of death tolls. It’s not accurate at all. I know having been there, it’s astronomically higher than what it is. And once the death settles and we see what has taken place, we are going to learn very horrific details that we played a part of.”
Ahmad then excused himself, giving Biden a picture of an eight-year-old orphan, Hadeel. Ahmad commented to Biden, “She’s begging you not to invade Rafah, and out of respect for everybody that’s suffering in Gaza right now, I have to leave.”
The importance of using your voice, especially when having the opportunity is crucial. “I just wanted to send a message to this person who I thought would end the war with a phone call and was not doing it for six months,” says Ahmad.
Being Palestinian myself, I’m aware of the severity and brutality of the war crimes happening in Gaza, however my experiences of hearing stories from people on ground have been through a screen on social media. Being able to hear from individuals speak first hand of their experiences inside of Gaza surviving through a destructive genocide, while also medically aiding injuries and illnesses in barely functional hospitals has been completely soul crushing.
Listening to all three doctors on stage has not only been heartbreaking and emotional for me hearing what they’ve endured traumatically, but also their personal experiences of being healthcare workers under the most dehumanizing and critical conditions.
Their strength and resilience of continuing to advocate for the Gazan cause and documenting their experiences to the world, has been inspirational and shows determination of taking action for a crucial cause.
Participate in the Gaza cause by engaging with elected officials and protests. Make opportunities to advocate and raise awareness of the Gazan cause to highlight the stories of individuals. It’s important now more than ever, to use our voices to uplift those who are calling for help. We are all able to create change in the world, but we must do our part in taking action to start that journey to freedom.