In Arabic, EAT means nostalgia. Now that the bombs have stopped falling en masse on the Lebanonmany, if not all, cling to that feeling. As Christmas decorations dot the streets, seeking shared joy, nostalgia arises for the lives that this war has devastated, and for the many that it has extinguished when they began to shine. Hanin carries that longing in his name. It is also glimpsed in his large eyes that appear insultingly young in the middle of a face ravaged by flames. “She was a loving mother in my beautiful life,” recalls this 31-year-old Lebanese woman, originally from Chmistarin it valle of the Scholarshipin the east of the country. From the burn unit of the hospital Geitawi de Beirutremembers how the happiness of fatigue caused by the emergence of new life only lasted five months.
40 days ago, Hanin saw his first and only child burned to death. Then he fell into a deep sleep. This new mother was at home when an Israeli attack hit her neighborhood. “The plane missed our building, but we were at home when the gas stove exploded and everything caught on,” he explains to this newspaper with his legs bandaged up to the groin. “My baby five months He died the same day we burned and my mother passed away It’s only been a week, but, thank God, I’m much better, although I’ll need a little more time and I’ll be fine,” she acknowledges with a smile that reveals the beauty on her burned face. The nurse who has accompanied her all these days , Caren, is still amazed to see her speak, move: Hanin spent her first 40 days in the hospital in a coma.
In the heart of hell
Now conscious, he is still in the same bed in the burn center intensive care unit from the Geitawi hospital in Beirut. At least 75 kilometers separate the small village of Hanin from the Lebanese capital. throughout the country there is only one hospital where people with severe burns can be treated. During the last two months, when Israeli bombings have killed 3.300 personas and injured thousands more, the nurses and doctors of this university center have seen the worst cases in the entire country pass through those nine rooms that were expanded to 25. “For them this war is not over“, he acknowledges Tony Zeaiternurse supervisor of the burn unit, to EL PERIÓDICO. Many have suffered third and fourth degree burns, with up to 95% of your body surface burned. They have been in the heart of hell.
It is very difficult to return from there. Those who make it often have nowhere to return. “The biggest problem right now after hospitalization is that, no matter how much we cure them and give them treatment, They don’t have a home to return to“, explains Zeaiter. “Many ask us if they can stay here in the hospital,” he says between stable beeps that confirm that the few remaining patients – 11 at the moment – are still alive. “No matter how much we offer them psychological care and talk to a psychiatrist regularly, we can’t do anything to give them a home,” he confesses, dejected. Upon entering the unit, he happily greets a three-year-old boy who has lost a leg and has both burned arms. The little one responds with a huge smile. “Of course we are. sad insidebut we smile in front of them because it is our job,” adds this father of three daughters.
25% are children
“25% of the patients we have received are children,” explains the doctor Naji Abirashidmedical director of Geitawi Hospital. “It’s a very high number for this type of wounds,” he tells this newspaper. Throughout these two months, the majority of the very critical patients they have received had more than 60% of the body burned with “very, very serious” burns. “Unfortunately, they have a difficult prognosis that involves intense treatment for four to six weeks,” he acknowledges. Created in 1992 after the end of the lebanese civil warare the only specialized unit to treat burn victims. During the Beirut port explosion in August 2020, the hospital was completely destroyed.
Despite its essentiality, unity depends on donations which, in the midst of the economic crisis, usually come from abroad and specifically from European Christian organizations. A day of treatment for severe burns at Geitawi Hospital costs on average 750 dollars. The Lebanese government reimburses half of the costs, although it often does so late. The other half is in charge of the kindness of others. “In some ways, these treatments are a load for the institution and for the entire health system in Lebanon, because we also have our own patients, and because it consumes the energy of the caregivers, the doctors, the nurses and all the staff who take care of these patients,” says Dr. Abirashed .
“We can only dream of the end”
A Caren el Ouainatya 24-year-old nurse, has had no choice but to get used to it. “To the noises, to the photos, to see them suffer…”, he explains to this newspaper. “They have been two very hard months for us with very serious cases,” adds this young woman who has been working at the hospital for three years. “We don’t just change the bandage every 48 hours and give them medication, but we try to smile, joke with patientstalking and sharing photos,” he says. As you enter Hanin’s room, you can feel the complicity having been practically his only company in recent weeks. “My husband works and comes to visit me when he can,” admits this mother without a child.
Hanin has returned from hell, but his time there will remain imprinted on your skin forever. “I never imagined that being in my own home would put me at risk; on the contrary, I gave birth to my son so that we were happy and we could live and have a good life, I never expected us to die,” says Hanin through tears. “On the contrary, I wanted him to have a good life, and mom too, because I was very attached to her, but this is a reality from which we cannot escape”he acknowledges. Hanin plans to return to his town as soon as he is discharged and rent a house while they rebuild the one that Israel burned. “I hope that all this violence will ever stop, but we can only dream about it, because every few years it returns: who can assure me that if I have another baby “Don’t the same thing happen to us and I lose it again?” he asks without waiting for an answer.
