 |
| Inside Ziv Medical Center in Safed |
A wounded Syrian man arrived at an Israeli hospital for emergency treatment.
When doctors examined the man they found a handwritten note attached to his body, according to hospital officials in Ziv Medical Center in the Israeli city of Safed.
The wounded Syrian man, 28, was transported across the border between Syria and Israel, with a handwritten note stuck to his clothes. The note requested the help of doctors at Ziv Medical Center in Safed.
The Syrian doctor's note, which was written in Arabic, read:
“To the honorable doctor, hello. The patient, 28, was hit by a bullet that entered his chest and caused a fracture in the ribs. The man suffered shrapnel injuries to the diaphragm and liver. I opened the chest, abdomen and liver, and stopped his bleeding. It was impossible for me to sew up his liver, so I put a pressure bandage on his stomach and sewed it up. The man was kept under observation. Since Saturday, I saw his vital signs deteriorate. Doctors said that his abdomen needs to be opened again to examine the liver and remove the pressure bandage. Unfortunately, I cannot do it. Please do what you think needs to be done. Thanks in advance.”
While Israeli doctors have helped treat wounded Syrians in the last months of the conflict, this may be the first time a direct transfer of a patient from a Syrian medical center to an Israeli hospital has taken place.
After peacekeepers of the United Nations transferred the patient through the border, Israeli doctors performed a second operation on the liver of man. Dr. Amram Hadari, chief of trauma at the medical center, said the operation that Syrian doctors made was basic but he credited them with saving the patient's life.
Over 16 Syrians have been treated at the hospital in the northern city of Safed, in the last three months. However, border transfers have not been without problems. Last week, Israeli police were called to secure a grenade found in the pocket of a wounded Syrian man who was transferred across the border.
A U.N. report released Thursday noted that the death toll in Syria has risen to nearly 93,000 since the start of the civil war in the country, two years ago.