GAZA: British war surgeon David Nott was back in the Gaza Strip this week to share with local doctors specialist knowledge he has amassed from working in conflict and disaster zones over the past quarter-century.
An expert in using minimal equipment to treat patients in basic facilities, Nott returned three years after his previous visit during the 2014 Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian activists.
This time, hospitals in Gaza are again struggling to cope with a crisis: power cuts and medicine shortages stemming from tensions between the enclave’s ruling Hamas group and the rival West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
In a hall at a beachfront restaurant this week, Nott instructed 36 Palestinian surgeons in special techniques to deal with injuries in a war zone.
“I was very impressed with the Gaza surgeons last time... but of course those experiences get less and less as time goes on and you have to then retrain the new surgeons how to deal with those injuries,” he said.
“That is the reason why I am here... to try and give the surgeons who work in Gaza as much of my knowledge and experiences as I have gained over the last 25 years.”
Suhair Zakkout, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, which hosted Nott, said his visit would help strengthen emergency medical services in the area and improve health providers’ efficiency.
Nott is a co-founder of the David Nott Foundation, which is dedicated to furthering the principles and improving the standards and practice of humanitarian surgery.
A specialist in vascular surgery, he worked in hospitals in Syria in 2012, 2013 and 2014 to treat victims of its civil war. — Reuters
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