{"id":166521,"date":"2024-11-02T04:36:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T04:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/02\/war-is-on-their-doorstep-but-a-duty-to-serve-keeps-staff-working-at-beirut-hospital\/"},"modified":"2024-11-02T04:36:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T04:36:23","slug":"war-is-on-their-doorstep-but-a-duty-to-serve-keeps-staff-working-at-beirut-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/02\/war-is-on-their-doorstep-but-a-duty-to-serve-keeps-staff-working-at-beirut-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"War is on their doorstep, but a ‘duty to serve’ keeps staff working at Beirut hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"War<\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

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Up on the roof of the St Therese Hospital, you can see just how close this war has come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Right over the street is Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut<\/strong><\/a> which is controlled by Hezbollah<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

About 200 metres away, smoke still rises from an airstrike last Saturday. A block of flats has been levelled. And it was not even the closest place to have been hit recently.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n A smoking building in Dahieh
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n \" Beirut\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Hospital director Elie Hachem says St Therese has taken a lot of damage
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

“These are huge bombs,” says Elie Hachem, the hospital’s director.<\/p>\n

“So, even though the hospital isn’t being targeted directly, it’s taking a lot of damage.”<\/p>\n

One strike that hit on 3 October was just 80 metres away.<\/p>\n

“We had to take babies in the incubators with bottles of oxygen and run down to the chapel.<\/p>\n

“There is a warning, but it’s 15, 20 minutes to evacuate the whole hospital, so I took a split-second decision and, thankfully, it was a good decision. Zero injuries.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


\n \"Israel
\n
\n 2:43<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

‘We’re not settlers or terrorists; we seek shelter’<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Looking out over Dahieh, it’s a ghost town, wreathed in dust.<\/p>\n

It was home to hundreds of thousands of people. But everyone who can has got out.<\/p>\n

However, the strikes are still deadly.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


\n \"Israeli
\n
\n 0:59<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Black smoke billows over Beirut skyline<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Ten minutes drive down the road, 18 people were killed a week ago in an attack near another hospital.<\/p>\n

St Therese is running with a reduced staff but is still operating.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n \" Beirut\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Nurse Sandra Hassoun says patients’ lives are ‘more important than ours’
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

“How can you leave?” Hachem, 33, asks. “People need you, people need the hospitals.<\/p>\n

“Business-wise, it’s much better for me to close up shop and leave. But we can’t do that. We have a duty to serve.”<\/p>\n

Inside, some of the rooms that are non-mission-critical still have damage. The auditorium is strewn with wires and roof panels, with broken glass on the floor.<\/p>\n

Other rooms have been fixed up as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

In the kitchen, the nuns who have worked here for decades are still serving food for staff and patients.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
Naim Kassem – Hezbollah’s new leader<\/strong><\/a>‘<\/a><\/strong>
This is our land, we deserve it’<\/a><\/strong>
Charity demands UK evacuate critically ill children from Gaza<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

But it is not easy working here, as nurse Sandra Hassoun says.<\/p>\n

“We’re definitely afraid. No one is not afraid. But we rely on God, and we do our job because the life of the patient is more important than ours,” she adds.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A month of war has taken its toll. And they are braced for more strikes. Sandbags protect the windows of the emergency room.<\/p>\n

“Now we’re still going,” Hachem says. “We can keep it going for a while, but not for too long. Not forever.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n \" Beirut\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n St Therese Hospital in Beirut has been damaged in the fighting
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up on the roof of the St Therese Hospital, you can see just how close this war has come.\u00a0 Right over the street is Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut which is controlled by Hezbollah. About 200 metres away, smoke still rises from an airstrike last Saturday. A block of flats has been levelled. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/10\/768x432\/skynews-beirut-st-therese-hospital_6732235.jpg?20241029164215","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32449,75454,3157,180,1730,500,3102,5864],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166523,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166521\/revisions\/166523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}