TWO premature babies have died at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital after the neonatal intensive care unit stopped working due to a lack of electricity, the facility’s director has said.
Thirty-seven other babies, also in the neonatal intensive care unit, are at risk of losing their lives as the hospital runs out of fuel to power their incubators, Director Mohammed Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
“Unfortunately, we’ve lost two out of 39 babies because of the power outage,” Abu Salmiya, the head of the largest medical complex in Gaza, said. “We are talking about premature babies who require very intensive care.”
He explained that the two babies died because of a lack of fuel at the hospital which provides electricity to the incubators allowing for warm temperatures and a constant flow of oxygen. The hospital has been under siege and a target of fierce Israeli attacks.
“They died due to low temperatures and a lack of oxygen. We are now using primitive methods to keep them alive,” the director said.
“We have electricity until the morning. Once electricity is out, these neonates will die just like the others,” Abu Salmiya warned.
Mohammed Obeid, a surgeon at al-Shifa Hospital, confirmed the newborns’ deaths and said an adult patient also died because there was no electricity for his ventilator.
“We want someone to give us the guarantee that they can evacuate the patients, because we have about 600 inpatients,” he said, in an audio recording posted by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF).
Ismail Yassin, the father of two premature baby girls – Mira and Dahab – at al-Shifa Hospital, said he was separated from the 33-day-old twins when he had to evacuate to southern Gaza with his wife.
“They had to stay behind in the incubators at al-Shifa. I cannot describe my feelings. I can’t provide safety to my newborn children,” he said, adding that he has appealed to the Red Cross and international organisations to help transfer his children.
