By Joshua Picazo. Bay City News.
Medical professionals at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center held a press conference calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
The conflict, which began on October 7 following Hamas attacks on Israel, has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties as the Israel Defense Forces continues retaliatory measures, including a blockade of Gaza.
Nearly all speakers at the event called for an immediate ceasefire, explaining that the ongoing war is causing extreme difficulties in providing care to patients in Gaza, as well as causing additional loss of life.
“It is a moral imperative for the global medical community to call for an immediate ceasefire and the protection of an already devastated health care infrastructure in Gaza,” said Dr. Jess Ghannam, clinical professor of Psychiatry and Global Health Sciences at the UCSF School of Medicine. “Doctors and health care providers are unable to provide care. Basic medical supplies are not arriving. The devastation of health care infrastructure is occurring at every level and in every sector of Gaza right now.”
The mental health aspects of war were also on the minds of doctors at the news conference, noting the toll it can take, especially on children.
“At the local level, anyone who experiences the risk of losing the lives of their loved ones is going to experience flashbacks of these bombs that they’re experiencing,” said Dr. Amin Azzam, a professor of psychiatry at UCSF’s Weill Institute for Neurosciences, regarding the emotional issues faced by children in proximity to war. “That has lasting trauma from childhood into adulthood, so you have a hard time forming healthy adult relationships as a result of the trauma you experience as a child, if you survive at all.”
UCSF's Dr. Leigh Kimberg said the lack of supplies and contaminated water will likely lead to cholera outbreaks.
“The situation is so desperate that people contact us whenever they have a moment of internet connection with questions that have no solution, such as 'How do you treat severe dehydration without water?'” he stressed.
“There are no words powerful enough to describe the magnitude of the courage and compassion of our Palestinian medical colleagues as they refuse to abandon their patients,” Kimberg said. “As a physician, a mother, a person whose Jewish ancestors fled anti-Semitic violence and pogroms, and as a human being, I call on all physicians, healthcare workers, and healthcare institutions around the world to respond to this genocide with a firm and unwavering commitment to our sacred oath.”
Kimberg also called for an immediate ceasefire and safe passage for medical and humanitarian aid.
Doctors at the press conference also stressed the well-being of mothers and pregnant women.
“Women are forced to give birth without anesthesia,” said Dr. Nadia Elkarra, director of Clinical Research Operations at Stanford University. “If we do not intervene immediately, maternal and neonatal mortality rates are poised to rise even further amid this humanitarian crisis. I am here today as a voice for the lives we have the power to save.”
Rupa Mayra, co-founder of the Do No Harm coalition, which co-organized the conference, said her colleagues hear medical professionals in Gaza describe “clinical horrors.”
“Silence now is unacceptable complicity. Our doctors, nurses and healthcare colleagues in Gaza are under direct attack and are asking for our help,” Mayra explained.
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