Charity tells of healthcare disaster in Syria

[Jefferson23]

Save the Children says in a new report that some patients are 'knocked out with metal bars for lack of anaesthesia'.

Last updated: 10 Mar 2014 10:12



Syria's civil conflict has left the country's health system so severely crippled that some patients are "opting to be knocked out with metal bars for lack of anaesthesia," a new report by the Save the Children charity says.

The report, A Devastating Toll, looks at the impact of three years of war on the health of the country's children.

"We received a little girl with critical injuries; we could do nothing but wait for her to die because we didn't have the equipment or the medicines. Till now I can't remove her face from my mind," said one health worker identified in the report only as Anas.

Save the Children said all the names of health workers, children and parents had been changed to protect their identities.The charity said more than 10,000 young lives had been lost as a direct result of the violence.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/03/charity-tells-healthcare-disaster-syria-201431083635146207.html