Gaza: Help my family afford emergency surgeries

WHO AM I?

Hello everyone…

My name is Nouran, but you might know me online as Noury. Before the war, my twitter account, @Noony_Boony, was a quiet corner of my life where I could talk about and make fanart for my favourite anime with friends online. Things have changed… to call the last four months of my life in Gaza a nightmare would be putting it far too lightly. My family and I have been stripped of every basic human right imaginable… we have watched our dreams, our health, our futures, and our lives wither away as we hear a constant barrage of rockets raining around us, not knowing if each one will be our last.

To keep my sanity early on in the war, I took to Twitter to document my thoughts whenever I had access to power. The response from all of you has been overwhelming, and I could never have imagined I’d have so many people checking up on me and giving me some sense of normalcy during the worst days of my life.

INJURIES

To keep things brief, for a period of roughly one month my family and I took refuge in a school in northern Gaza as our home was no longer safe. The school’s solar panels allowed me access to the internet, and we were able to survive on the building’s supplies and basic amenities. We believed (mostly hoped) it would be safe.

On the night of December 19, my family and I were sheltering in one of the school’s classrooms when we were hit by what we believe to be a tank shell as it broke through the classroom walls and struck us. We quickly fled to another part of the school, and spent the night in agony lying in our blood and tears, unable to sleep from the explosions and fighting nearby. It was only until the next morning until our phone calls broke through and we were able to call for help. We were brought to a nearby hospital not in an ambulance, but piled in a dirty carriage pulled by a donkey, as though we were already corpses being collected for disposal.

I wish I could say things improved in the hospital… but sadly, the hospital we were brought to (like most hospitals in Gaza) was operating at minimal capacity due to previous attacks and disruption of medical supplies. We deteriorated in the overrun hospital for 2 entire days before a single doctor came to look at us. Every time it was our turn to be examined, a new wave of wounded patients were brought in, overwhelming the few doctors that were still there. Once we were finally looked at over the coming days, we kept hearing the same things… “Too much time has passed, we can’t fix this.” “If only you had come sooner.” “Because you waited, this won’t heal fully”. I can’t look at doctors anymore without feeling nauseous and dizzy because they have given my family nothing but bad news and broken hope for the past month.

I cannot describe how grateful I am that all of my family survived, but allow me to describe the injuries we sustained and have dealt with for nearly 50 days now:

- My brother lost his right eye and ear, and suffered a skull fracture. Shrapnel has destroyed his right ear canal, and he’s completely deaf on that side. After nearly a month, he underwent eye enucleation surgery (where the eyeball is removed) to prevent further damage and infection.

- I lost my right eye as well, and last week I got the same surgery as my brother. I also suffered major soft tissue trauma to my forehead and scalp. Twenty days after we arrived to the hospital, I was finally able to get X-rays done (posted above) which revealed fractures to my clavicle, my left hand (meaning I can no longer draw), and shrapnel/debris in my nasal cavity (which has recently thankfully been surgically removed). The bones have begun to heal in the wrong places due to delayed treatment and thus need more intensive surgeries to be fixed. My right thumb has been paralyzed and needs physical therapy, meaning I can’t really use either of my hands. Finally, I was left with a large open wound on my cheek for weeks which meant that I couldn’t drink water without some of it spilling out through the hole.

- My dad has completely lost his right calf muscle and can no longer walk without support. He can’t get surgery to transplant tissue from other parts of his body to his calf right now because there are no doctors here that know how to give epidural anaesthesia.

- My mom has an untreated broken jaw and can no longer eat solid food. In the time since she was injured, she has lost over 14kg.

I NEED YOUR HELP

It seems as though every time I believe that my family and I have hit rock bottom, we are hit with the cold reality of a worsening situation. With disappointment, pain, and bad news everywhere I look, I turn to you all as my last resort. I held off from asking for help until this point for multiple reasons… I hoped things would improve and we wouldn’t need help from others, and I didn’t want to put myself in such a vulnerable position. Most importantly, the short-term and long-term costs of treating our injuries means that we can no longer stand by and wait for things to improve.

The short-term costs are clear: medicines like antibiotics, anaesthesia, and pain relief are extremely expensive and difficult to get because of supply issues. The surgeries we desperately need have the same issues… doctors are in high demand, and many of them are inexperienced or just volunteers trying to help. The food situation is similar: any food sold around the hospital is just too expensive due to shortages. Our savings are running dry, and I fear for the day where we must choose between disrupting our treatment or going hungry.

My heart hurts when I think about the long term. When the medical system returns to normal, with your support, I am hopeful that my brother and I will be able to undergo reconstructive surgeries. With your support, I am hopeful that my mom will be able to eat again, and that my dad will be able to walk again. With your support, my hands will be fixed… I can only hope that one day I will be able to draw again and return to the one and only thing I’ve used as an escape in my life for so long. With your support, I hope we will be able to land on our feet and return to a normal life that I didn’t think I would have missed so much when I had it.

Due to the war’s disruptions in Gaza’s banking infrastructure, my close family who lives in Ireland have generously agreed to route donations through there where they can provide emergency aid in the short term and direct transfers once the war hopefully stops and we can receive them. They have been a major pillar of support both emotionally and financially for the past 100 days, but they cannot afford the quickly rising costs for any longer.

A CLOSING NOTE

It all circles back to you. Whether you donate or share this with friends, I cannot find the words to thank you. My heart is heavy and carries over 100 days of suffering, but scrolling through countless messages of support until my eyes water has truly shown me that I will never be alone. You all have given me more comfort than you could imagine in my darkest moments, and I hope you all can find it within yourselves to help me and my family just one last time.

With endless love,

Nouran