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In war-torn northwest Syria, earthquake survivors struggle to get medical care | 60 minutes
After the catastrophic series of earthquakes in February, the world poured emergency aid into Turkey and Syria. But it has been nearly impossible to reach some of those who suffer the most. They were already fighting for survival in a war zone. Recently, we traveled to this battlefield in northwest Syria to meet with an American medical charity that defied the odds and brought hands of healing and hope.
On the night of February 6th, death seemed a certainty…and life, a revelation.
10,000 buildings collapsed across northwest Syria. In towns that have held out for thousands of years, disaster is archetypal.
Earthquakes in February devastated Syria. 60 minutes
But rescue did not guarantee survival. Ambulances rushed to a medical device in critical condition after 12 years of bombing hospitals and killing doctors.
Dr.. Samer Attar: There is a terrifying saying I learned in Syria that killing a doctor is like killing a hundred soldiers. Because if you kill a doctor, or you kill a nurse, or you kill a paramedic, or you blow up an ambulance, or you destroy a hospital — you’re not just killing those individuals, or a group of individuals, you’re just taking hope out of the community.
Samer Attar is an orthopedic surgeon from Chicago and a volunteer with the Syrian American Medical Society — an American charity that runs 13 hospitals in a war zone with a Syrian staff of 23 hundred.
Dr.. Samer Attar: So, when the war broke out in Syria – healthcare providers and healthcare infrastructure were attacked because war crimes are at work. Crimes against humanity works. If you can escape punishment, you win.
It speaks of relentless attacks on health care ordered by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian ally Vladimir Putin, who has sent his army into Syria as a precursor to Ukraine. The war began in 2011 with an uprising aimed at ending the 52-year dictatorship of the Assad family. But Assad responded by bombing his country with artillery, chemical weapons and barrel bombs dropped by planes. 14 million have lost their homes. Half a million died. Northwestern Syria is in the hands of the rebels and here we met the Syrian American Medical Society, known as SAMS.
Scott Pelley: How many surgeries have you had?
Dr.. Samer Attar: I turned 23 on my first day. I remember crying myself to sleep the first night. Because, to be fair, the suffering was so overwhelming.
We met Samer Attar six years ago as the Syrian American Medical Society was building a hospital in a cave to protect him from attack. Today, the hospital is complete and has proven to be able to withstand earthquakes. Amani Jaglan, a SAMS nurse, wears a black and white headscarf.
Amani Jaglan (Arabic translation): I was shocked by the scene…
She told us.
Amani Jaglan (Arabic translation): The ground was littered with corpses, and there he was [so many]. I could not imagine the extent of the destruction and the number of victims.
The number in northwestern Syria reached 45 hundred dead. At the Cave Hospital, the missing are placed in corridors where a quick scan can change lives forever and disbelief suspends grief even for a moment.
Many people needed medical attention after the earthquakes in Syria. 60 minutes
Dr.. Samer Attar: I remember a twenty-two-year-old man who got engaged the day before the earthquake, and the next day his whole family disappeared. I remember a 16-year-old girl who was paralyzed from the neck down, and her family went while she was on a ventilator in a hospital in Syria. Who will take care of her? and two orphaned teenage sisters, both with injuries to both legs that required multiple surgeries, and a four-year-old boy with a traumatic brain injury who was on a ventilator.
Dr.. Samer Attar: These nurses and doctors are the bravest people I have ever met. They were already traumatized by the barrel bombs and chemical weapons. But when they talked about the earthquake, I didn’t really see so much fear, panic, and anxiety.
We found those feelings in the story of a woman who was rescued from this collapsed apartment building. Thirty-five-year-old Zainab Ali al-Najeeb arrived at the Cave Hospital to tell Amani Chagalan a story that was hard to believe.
Amani Jaglan (Arabic translation): I remember a woman who came to me to say that all her children were dead.
Rescue workers were searching for the woman’s six children.
Abdo Tariq (Arabic translation): We arrived at the collapsed building and heard a noise. We tried to get to the sound quickly, but our equipment and capabilities were limited.
Among the rescuers were Abdo Tariq and Sameh Fakhoury, volunteers for the White Helmets, a 3,000-strong civil defense force formed nine years ago to rescue victims of Assad’s attacks.
White Helmets volunteers carry out rescue work in Syria. 60 minutes
proud told us,
Sameh Fakhoury (Arabic translation): The girl was the first to reach her by digging into the ceiling. There were two children behind her.
Abdu Tariq (Arabic translation): I went down to her and removed the rubble from her hands and feet, and after an hour and a half we were able to get her out.
The surviving children – including 8-year-old Mohammed and 6-year-old Safaa – were taken to the cave hospital.
Amani Jaglan (Arabic translation): After about fifteen minutes…
Jaglan told us:
Amani Jaglan (Arabic translation): A girl arrived, followed by another girl. There were three of them.
Three out of six children survive. We found them with their mother Zainab.
Zainab Ali Al-Najib with her children in Syria, 60 minutes
Scott Pelley: When your surviving children came along, did it seem like a miracle to you?
Zainab Ali Al-Najib (Arabic translation): Imagine that you lost all your children, and all were gone, and then some of them returned to you.
She told us she had to leave a child in surgery so she could attend another child’s funeral.
Zainab Ali Al-Najeeb (Arabic translation): I try to talk to them but no one answers me. The silence is unbearable. I miss seeing them and hearing their laughter. If only I could meet them for an hour. I pray to God to bring us together as soon as possible. They must miss us as much as we miss them. I hope to see them soon in heaven.
Her tent stands where her flat fell. In northwest Syria, earthquakes have left 53,000 families with nowhere to go, prompting an expansion of old war camps for the displaced.
Scott Pelley: What are their needs?
Dr. Mufaddal Hamadeh: Oh my God! What do they not need? I mean, look at that. Food security is one thing.
Mufaddal Hamadeh, an oncologist in Chicago and former president of the Syrian American Medical Society. He told us the Syrian American Medical Society spends $28 million annually in Syria. About 10 million of that was contributed by US foreign aid.
Scott Pelley: What is the hope for the future of Syria?
Dr.. Mufaddal Hamadeh: I hope they find hope and be able to believe in the future. They feel so much left behind and forgotten by the world. I hope they feel again that there is… that there are some people who really care.
We found moments of hope even amid the unholy devastation of Idlib, a city that remembers 12 years of war, and is still in the hands of the rebels. Here, the Syrian American Medical Society built a hospital out of an office building. And in surgeries that took place weeks ago, Samer Attar repaired the arms and legs of 12-year-old Suzanne.
Scott Pelley: What does this moment of progress mean to you?
Dr. Samer Attar: This means that there are days when you are battling bouts of hopelessness and hopelessness, wondering what exactly you are accomplishing – and feeling like you are trying to empty the ocean with a small cup because it never ends, suffering never ends and never seems to go away. But it’s those short flashes that are enough to keep you going for another month.
There will be several months to come and no end in sight to the war.
Scott Pelley: Have there been airstrikes since the earthquake?
Sameh Fakhoury (Arabic translation): Yes, there were airstrikes. This area was subjected to artillery bombardment four days after the earthquake.
Scott Pelley: How do you explain the severity of the airstrikes on people who have just survived this terrible disaster?
They thought the question had an obvious answer. They told us that Assad is a criminal. With no hope for peace, Dr. Attar now worries about vital follow-up surgeries, physiotherapy and prosthetics.
Dr.. Samer Attar, 60 minutes
Dr.. Samer Attar: They will struggle. And what is their future? I keep thinking of that girl on a ventilator, who was paralyzed from the bottom of the chest. Who – what happens to her? Who – who takes care of her? Normally in Syria, a big part of your society is the family, but what do you do when your whole family has been killed, and there is no one else around. Who takes care of you?
Scott Pelley: I volunteered at this hospital during the war, came running back after the earthquake, and treated battlefield injuries in the Ukraine as a volunteer. And I have to ask, why are you doing this work?
Dr.. Samer Attar: It’s not just about coming to help. A lot of these missions for me revolve around shahada. It is about communication, solidarity and advocacy. Just being able to be here, be there, look at these nurses, look these doctors in the eye, shake hands with them, just be with them, on the floor with them. It just lets them know it’s a small world, they’re not alone, we’re all connected and when the world around you literally falls apart and falls apart, all we have is each other. This is part of the reason I keep coming back.
It was “each other” and courage enough to steal moments of victory.
But northwest Syria will have to ration mercy. Eleven thousand wounded by earthquakes on a long journey – victims of a fierce and forgotten war – experienced only by the sympathy of human hearts.
To learn more about the Syrian American Medical Society, click here. To learn more about the White Helmets, click here.
Produced by Nicole Young. Field Producer, Selin Ozdemir. Field producer Moaz Mustafa. Associate Producer, Christine Steve Broadcast, Michelle Karim. Broadcast Assistant, Matthew Riley. Edited by Sean Kelly.
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