Dr. Jawad Khan says most of the patients he treated during a volunteer mission in Gaza were young children. NBC Los Angeles’ Amber Frias reports.
Dr. Jawad Khan is back home safely in Orange County, but he says he left part of his heart in Gaza where he spent several weeks, providing medical aids to those caught in the crossfire in the Israel-Hamas war.
For Khan, the worst part of the experience was having to treat countless children with severe injuries with at least 75% of his patients having been under the age of 18.
Khan says he still thinks about one particular patient.
“An 8-year-old girl,” Khan described. “My daughter is 8, so that just kind of make things more personal for you.”
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The young girl was one of four sisters, the surgeon said, with each child being under age 12. They were rushed to the only hospital in central Gaza with gunshot wounds from an Israeli drone.
“It exploded her arm, so it really makes you question the caliber of bullets they are using, and unfortunately there was no saving it.” Khan said.
While two of her sisters had to undergo surgery to save their legs, the other died.
Khan and two other medics – Omar Sabha, an operating room nurse, and Dr. Haifaa Younis, an OBGYN – from Orange County visited Gaza last month as part of a life-saving volunteer mission put together by the nonprofit Humanity Auxilium.
Khan says many of the injured children he treated had gunshot wounds, not from being collateral damage.
“It's one of those things where you kind of just see a lot of things that you can't unsee and will have a permanent impact on you,” Khan said.
According to UNICEF, more than 14,000 children have been killed and 12,000 others have been wounded during the war in Gaza where nearly half of the population is under the age of 18.
