Dr. Mustafa Ali Abdulrahman Ibo and colleagues bravely operate under increasing bombardment at the last remaining hospital in el-Fashira, a town under siege for the past nine months in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
Over the past month, the hospital has recorded 28 deaths and more than 50 injuries among staff and patients due to intense shelling. This is the highest number of casualties in a month since the beginning of the blockade.
“The recent continuous attacks on the Saudi hospital have escalated dramatically, it has become part of our daily life,” Dr Ibo, a Darfurian who has lived in El-Fashira since 2011, told the BBC.
He said the scariest day was when the medical team were doing an emergency C-section when the shelling started – it was almost fatal for all of them.
“The first shell hit the perimeter of the hospital… (then) another shell hit the maternity operating room, the debris damaged the electrical generator, cutting off the electricity and plunging us into total darkness,” he said.
The surgical team had no choice but to use the torches on their phones to complete the two-hour operation.
A part of the building collapsed and the room was full of dust, shards were scattered everywhere.
Dr. Khatab Mohammed, who oversaw the operation, described the dangers.
“The situation was terrible, the environment was no longer sterile,” the 29-year-old medic told the BBC.
“After ensuring our safety and the safety of the patient from the shrapnel, we cleaned her and changed the surgical gowns as our clothes were full of dust and we continued with the operation,” he said, adding that the patient could have died from complications.
After the successful delivery, the doctors moved the mother and newborn to another room for recovery and then gathered for a group photo.
It was a testament to their survival, but Dr Mohammed added: “I thought this might be our last photograph, assuming another shell would hit the same spot and we would all die.”
They performed two more emergency life-saving surgeries that day.
