Mobile Hospitals save protesters from killer squads

Injured protestors seek treatment in clandestine clinics out of sigh of authorities.

Mohammad did not expect to survive the shooting by Syrian security forces at the protest he took part in – surprised that anyone survived the after blood seemed to fill every corner of this Damascus suburb.

Mohammad, barely 20 years old, looked so pale, lying on a soft bed in the corner of a room inside a big house with a bag of medicine and an X-ray of his injured right ankle showing a bone fracture.

This room is where wounded protestors go in the last part of their treatment in this mobile hospital, according to Abu Ra’fat who accompanied us in the suburb that experienced the shooting.

“The idea of a mobile hospital came to our minds after we knew that Syrian security forces had forcefully entered some hospitals in Deraa and killed wounded protestors,” he said. “The security forces were assaulting wounded people with no ethical or religious constraints whatsoever. This forced us to figure out an alternative way to treat the wounded, as you can all see now.”

Protestors in Damascus and its suburbs as well in other districts are using mobile field hospitals instead of public and even private hospitals that are under government surveillance. Young men from the different areas undergoing protests have volunteered to find appropriate houses to be used as safe haven for both the wounded who need treatment, and for protestors who want to escape arrest.

The persons in charge of such hospitals are usually doctors and nurses who are honouring the oath that they made when they graduated from medical school. Besides the professional and humanitarian perspective, they also agree with the majority of Syrians who are seeking freedom from tyranny and oppression.

We managed to meet the doctor who treated Mohammad, after giving him assurances that we would not disclose his name to anyone. After welcoming us, he apologised for his initial reluctance to meet, saying one should be careful in dealing with such matters to stay away from the eyes of a merciless regime that would not treat him differently just because he was a doctor.

“I specialise in surgery, and I agreed with a number of doctors to help wounded protestors in our area,” he said. “As for Mohammad’s case, he underwent a critical operation. We removed a bullet from his ankle, cleaned and sterilised his wound, and he is now taking antibiotics and other medications to reduce the swelling in his foot. After a while, we should operate again on him to deal with the bone fracture.”

The doctor spoke of the “courage” of those wounded young men in unrelenting pain, and the courage of those who secure the appropriate houses to host the injured and provide all the medical equipment needed for such treatment, which ranges from first aid and goes as far as surgery.

After our short visit to the doctor, Abu Ra’fat, who accompanied us, took us back to the area where Mohammad and other young men were shot.

The field hospital is mobile in the sense that a patient can be moved to different places within an hour so as to outsmart spies whose job is to locate the wounded and report their location to the security forces.

Abu Ra’fat said that Mohammad was moved to two different houses before reaching the his current location, so as to outsmart those spies. He explained that Mohammad was first transferred to a house close to the area where he sustained the injury, but was later moved to another building after his location was discovered by a spy. He stayed for one week in that second house before we took another safety measure by moving to his current location, Abu Ra’fat added.

Many residents of the neighborhoods around Damascus have stopped leasing their houses to rent and sacrificed the financial revenues they were getting from such leases in order to use their houses as field hospitals for protestors.

A landlord whose house is now being used as a field hospital said, “My house was listed for rent, and when the protests started, I unlisted it in anticipation of its possible use as a field hospital or as a refuge for some displaced family.”

When asked about the degree of risk he was taking, in case the security forces break in to his house, he said, “My life is not more precious than the lives of the young men who are facing death.”

Operating mobile hospitals is much harder in the Syrian countryside due to the generally small size of villages. The entire village would know if someone had been shot, which makes the job of spies much easier.

Almost 360 kilometres from Damascus, we reached the district of Idlib in the northern part of the country. Idlib is the district adjacent to the border with Turkey. A young man told us that such proximity made it easier to help the wounded as some – specifically from Jisr al-Shughour and other border villages – were transferred to the Turkish city of Antioch for treatment after receiving first aid on the spot.

However, the young man added that there was still a need for field hospitals to account for instances when the border was not accessible due to the presence of guards who would not hesitate to kill the wounded person and the people accompanying him.

Individuals who are caught managing such hospitals and doctors who are caught treating wounded protestors would be treated as criminals who committed heinous crimes if arrested by the security forces.

A young man who belonged to one of the coordination groups in the district of Idlib told us that the security forces entered his city in search of doctors, pharmacists, and nurses who treated wounded protesters shot by security forces a few weeks ago.

“They arrested four doctors, a nurse, and a pharmacist, violently and disrespectfully,” he said. “Their only crime was that they helped wounded people and provided them with medication in one of the field hospitals.”

Protestors calling for freedom and for the ousting of Bashar al-Assad’s regime no longer trust government hospitals, which are completely under the control of security forces. We heard many tragic stories about wounded persons who entered such hospitals with light injuries and left them as dead bodies.

But the wounded people we met during our tour were waiting to heal so they could rejoin the protests, fearless and without any intention to give up on the demands of the Syrian people.