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“I've done more amputations, and seen more traumatic amputations of children's, than I've seen during my entire career in the last two weeks.”
Dr. Adam Hamawy

Interviewer: Dr. Hamawy, you know, a similar question to you. You’ve certainly had the chance to see combat in Iraq and operate in Iraq. It’s something that none of us probably have ever experienced. How does what you are seeing now and the conditions that you are operating in compare to other war zones that you’ve lived through?

Dr. Hamawy: I’ve seen combat and war wounds, and have done surgery with humanitarian and disaster relief now for almost 20 years, and this is nothing like this. You know, the injuries, the amount of children that I’ve seen is just, you know, unprecedented. I take care of more, you know, people under the age of 13 than I’ve ever taken care of before. I’ve done more amputations, and seen more traumatic amputations of children’s, than I’ve seen during my entire career in the last two weeks, and that’s what’s really making a difference. You know, in Iraq, there is some civilian casualties. Here, it’s like primarily just, you know, children. women, elderly, I mean, today I took care of four children, one woman and two people over the age of like 60, and this is not like typical of, you know, the wars that I’ve like experienced in the past. So this is like, you know, really the main like, you know, this is like, this is not like a war this is just like a complete utter destruction. There’s nothing left. I was able to actually venture out of the hospital and there’s like nothing left in the area around us, it’s like just flattened, completely flattened.

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