SYRIAN DOCTOR REFERS PATIENT TO ISRAEL
Syrian hospitalized in Safed brings note in Arabic from physicians who treated him before his transfer to Israel. ‘Patient was hit by bullet that penetrated his chest and caused a fracture in the lungs. Please do what is needed. Thank you in advance,’ note reads
One of the two injured Syrians who were admitted to Safed’s Ziv Medical Center on Saturday entered Israel with a note from the doctor who gave him first aid on the other side of the border.
The note, which was written in Arabic and addressed to Israeli doctors, includes details about the injured young Syrian’s condition: “To the respectable surgeon hello. The patient, 28, was injured from a bullet that penetrated his chest and caused a fracture in the lungs, as well as from shrapnel that caused damage to the diaphragm and liver.
“The chest has been opened up and the bleeding has been stopped. The abdomen has also been opened up and the bleeding in the liver has been stopped,” the note read. “It is the doctors’ opinion that the abdomen should be opened up to assess the condition of the liver and remove the pressure bandage. Please do what is needed. Thank you in advance.”
The note also detailed the medication that was given to the patient.
Dr. Oscar Embon, director of the Ziv Medical Center, said “the surgery the patient underwent in Syria was basic. I don’t know what instruments the doctors who treated him had at their disposal, but the operation apparently saved his life. Here he underwent a second liver operation. We stitched up his diaphragm and drained the chest.”
Some 20 injured Syrians have been treated in Israeli hospitals over the past few months.
Maor Buchnik
