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We start today with an extraordinary insight into what it's like to run a hospital in a war-zone. Yemen is under bombardment by a Saudi-led coalition which supports the ousted president and is trying to stop his opponents, the Houthis, from taking over the country. The Saudis are imposing a blockade and there are severe shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies. Hospitals are struggling to keep going. Dr Mohammed Hajjar is in charge of one in Saada Province, one of the worst affected parts of the country. He's been telling me about the life-and-death decisions he's having to make.
We have completely stopped all the normal ordinary clinics so we don't receive ordinary patients anymore. Even the dialysis, the kidney dialysis department has shut down. The entire hospital here now is operating on emergency cases. All the cases we receive are injuries due to the war, whether it's burns because of the bombs and missiles or shrapnel injuries.
What's happening to all these other people who require dialysis or cancer treatment or, you know, other conditions related to it, to the conflict, such as, you know, problems with lack of food and clean water?
So, some of the cases, like the kidney dialysis cases I've been following up, they don't come to us anymore because many of them have fled to hide in the mountains and many of them have died already. That's what I know of them. |