Bay Area ER doctor returns home from aid mission in Gaza
As the war between Israel and Hamas continues to rage on in Gaza, people from around the world have been doing what they can to help civilians on the ground, including a doctor from the Bay Area.
Friday, Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency room doctor at El Camino Health, arrived back home after 5 weeks working in Gaza.
"I'm still trying to digest all of the images and everything I saw," Subeh said, recounting the trip. "So I apologize if it disjointed. I'm physically and mentally exhausted."
Subeh was greeted by his wife, two sons and numerous friends when he landed at San Francisco International airport. He was relieved to be back with his loved ones after working to save so many people.
"I was entering an apocalyptic horror movie," Subeh said. "The images of kids with their brains blown out, it's magnitude is more than what I expected. I'm still trying to process what that means for us as a global community allowing this to happen."
Subeh says he'll never forget the sounds of planes buzzing overhead, screams, and the smell of charred flesh. He worked in a field hospital tending to civilians. They were set up to treat 30 patients a day, this past week they saw almost a thousand patients daily.
Mass casualty situations left doctors color coding patients to determine if they had enough change of survival to receive care.
"We really worked with very scarce resources to be able to save lives, save limbs," he said, explaining the medical shortcomings. "I saw more dead babies in the past month than I have seen in my 12 month career in medicine."
Subeh is a refugee himself. He grew up in the West Bank and immigrated to Los Angeles. He says he was taught by his parents to use his individual gifts to help the world. He felt it was a no-brainer to go to Gaza.
"I also really don't go through life functioning out of fear because it paralyzes us to do the things we need to do," Subeh said.
He says despite his excitement to come home, he's still conflicted.
"I do feel this deep sense of guilt that I left Gaza and the left the people there that I have a deep connection and love for," he said. "I learned from this experience the importance of humanizing everyone around you because we've come to a state in our global society where it's easy to dehumanize the other person and that gives you a green light to commit atrocities that you never imagined you would commit and that's what I witnessed first hand."
When asked if he would go back, he said "absolutely," with no hesitation.