(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A south suburban emergency room physician is back from treating Palestinian patients in Gaza and talking about providing healthcare under siege.
Dr. Thaer Ahmad is an emergency medicine physician at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He's also a part of a group called MedGlobal, which has an office in Gaza.
Ahmad just spent a few weeks working at a hospital there. He said he was overwhelmed by the number of people huddled in the facility for shelter, not just medical care.
When people say hospitals are only partially functioning there, he said that is accurate. The hospital where he was had no bed, no telecommunications and often no water. But staff managed to provide care with the raw materials around them.
"They were the true heroes in all of this, because they were working with so little and doing so much," Ahmad said. "And so, we were able to treat people on the floor, we were figuring out how to use a tourniquet using just some random strings and wires that were nearby.
"We figured out how to splint people who had broken bones or shattered hips with household supplies that you could find."
He said without guidance from his resourceful colleagues, "I would have definitely have had multiple breakdowns, just feeling like I'm not able to do my job."
Ahmad said it's hard to keep people alive under such conditions, but the bombing victims kept coming.
Listen to our new podcast Looped In: Chicago
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!
Sign up and follow WBBM Newsradio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok
