Thurayia Zein Al Abideen, Paediatrician

I’m a paediatrician, and the most common problem I have seen with children coming from the camps and inside Syria is enuresis [wetting themselves] due to fear of plane bombings.

The hospital was established around 2012. In 2013 it was hit by machine gun fire from planes, so they had to put up these barricades to protect the staff.

Here we have the emergency department. Any patient coming from the camps or nearby villages enters the emergency department right away. Here we have an emergency doctor around the clock, in addition to a full nursing team, including female nurses for the women and an anaesthetist. The team is ready to receive cases 24/7.

We are standing in front of the surgical department of Al Salamah hospital, which is an MSF hospital. Here staff carry out general and orthopaedic surgery.

After working long hours, especially under a lot of pressure, sometimes working three hours non-stop, you don’t even have time to breathe. For me, the most important thing is a cup of coffee. I have to sit down and have a cup of coffee, no matter what, even if it is just for two minutes.

The radiography department provides very important services for the hospital. Patients can come to us if they need an X-ray or if they have war wounds or any injury to their body. The services provided by this department are really important as we do not need to send patients elsewhere to get an X-ray.

The hospital sends a bus to the displaced persons camps two or three times a day.

Depending on the number of people in need, they usually bring back 30 to 40 children with their mothers. The main problem for mothers living in the camps is the bad living conditions. People there live in very difficult circumstances, and the tents are in very poor condition, especially when it rains. We see mothers and children covered with mud, and we meet mothers crying in despair that their children are not recovering.

I had the opportunity to work in Germany but I refused. I want to work in Syria because people need us, and we are now facing a huge shortage of doctors. After all, I am a paediatrician and there are children who are affected psychologically, physically and financially. Women and children are the most affected.