Gaza's extraordinary health care crisis

Also: A new RSV shot could help protect babies this winter — if they can get it [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  October 31, 2023 Hi CommonHealth reader, It is challenging to keep up with the crisis in Gaza, both because the situation is changing so quickly, and because the details are so difficult to process. Overwhelmed health care workers are [trying to provide care]( under extraordinary conditions. They lack such [basic necessities]( as power, water and medical supplies. Surgeons say they are having to operate without light or [anesthesia](. Wounded patients keep coming, while countless other civilians seek shelter inside hospitals. And medical facilities themselves have not been spared. Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza was the [site of an explosion]( earlier this month, and [the Associated Press reports]( strikes have hit closer to several other hospitals in recent days, as Israel [expands its response]( to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The World Health Organization says Gaza's health system is [on the verge of collapse](. "Every day is horrible," Dr. Mohammad Qandeel, of Gaza's Nasser Hospital, [told NPR](. Among those monitoring the crisis is [Lindsey Ryan Martin]( a critical care nurse practitioner and director of global disaster response and humanitarian action at Massachusetts General Hospital. Martin spends many weeks a year responding to disasters around the globe, from earthquakes to hurricanes to violent conflicts. That includes the war in Ukraine, where Martin and her colleagues have trained health care workers in trauma care, close to the front lines. When I reached out to her a few days ago, she was working at a clinic for migrants in Mexico. But the [crisis in Gaza]( feels very different, Martin told me. "There are no words, I think, to describe what's going on in Gaza," she said. "What we're seeing right now is on a scale that, at least in my career, I haven't seen or experienced before. And the entire world is watching." Martin said the lack of essentials like water — and the fact that Gaza is mostly closed off from the rest of the world — make the situation there different from Ukraine, where she has traveled several times in the past year. "I think about what it would be like to try to provide health care under a condition of not having enough water," she said. It ultimately comes down to having to make terrible decisions, she said, like whose life to save when there aren't enough resources to save everybody. Martin’s team has stayed in touch with officials from the WHO, as well as smaller humanitarian organizations working on the ground. "We're watching very closely to see if there's any openings to provide humanitarian assistance," she said. "Right now, there's an accessibility issue not just for health care, but for all humanitarian aid to get to the place that it needs to be." 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