IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Turkish hospitals are rejecting patients or medical emergencies from areas it occupies in northwest Syria that are run by pro-Turkish armed groups, in light of the poor health conditions there.
During the past three months, deaths that occurred due to Turkish refusal to receive Syrian patients have exceeded ten, according to medical sources in Idlib.
Most of those deaths were children, who were critically burnt during fires which erupted in IDP camps in northwest Syria.
Turkish authorities do not receive all medical emergencies, risking the lives of dozens of patients, sources told North Press.
On March 9, Turkish doctors at Bab al-Hawa border crossing refused to transfer a severely burnt to Turkish hospitals. She later succumbed to her injuries.
40 hours of suffering
Wafa’ al-Hammdo, a resident of Idlib, told North Press about being forced to wait at the Turkish border for 40 hours with her critically injured child.
“Due to Husam’s critical situation, having several skull fractures leading to internal bleeding, we were referred from Bab al-Hawa hospital to Turkish territory,” she said.
Medical emergencies are referred from Idlib University Hospital or Bab al-Hawa hospital to Turkey, at which point Turkish doctors assess the cases, a medical source told North Press.
Husam had not been allowed in Turkey for two days, because there were more critical cases, according to what Turkish doctors told al-Hammdo.
Husam lost his life after three days, just a few minutes before being given permission to enter Turkey, according to the mother.
“The approval was made…but it was too late,” al-Hammdo said painfully.
Turkey receives medical emergencies that have less than 70% chance of death, and they are allowed in after the public hospital, which is the only hospital that receives the Syrian patients in Antakya, accepts them.
In late December, 42-year-old Maryam al-Hammod, a resident of south Idlib countryside, lost her life due to heart failure.
Her older son Yahya told North Press that his mother needed an urgent cardiac catheterization that was not available in local hospitals.
Yahya saw the Turkish medical teams in the crossing and they set an appointment for the surgery after four months, which was a very long period according to his mother’s critical condition, and she died before the set time.
Only numbers
“How inhuman they are; we and our children become a subject for their pity, and for them we are only numbers either to be killed or to die.” With these words Noha al-Mustafa expressed her sorrow and pain after she lost her only son in the Turkish hospitals.
Al-Mustafa, who is living in a camp for IDPs in northwest Syria, said that her son died due to medical complications that he had after some water leaked into his respiratory tract in late 2020.
Turkey refused to receive the child, and the mother said, “Turkey and Turkish doctors’ negligence caused me to lose my son.”