A Syrian doctor recently asked Israel for help in saving the life of a critically wounded patient.
The injured 28-year-old Syrian man was ferried across the Syria-Israel border with a handwritten note attached to his clothing. Date June 8, the note requested the assistance of doctors at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, Ynetnews reports.
According to a translation by The Jerusalem Post the Syrian doctor's note, written in Arabic, read:
To the honorable doctor, hello. The patient [name omitted], 28 years old, was hit by a bullet that went into his chest and caused a fracture in his ribs and damage by shrapnel to the diaphragm and liver. We opened his chest and abdomen and stopped the hemorrhaging of the liver. It was impossible to sew up the liver, so we put a pressure bandage on the stomach and sewed him up. He remained for observation. From Saturday, we watched his hemoglobin level and vital signs. The doctors say his abdomen has to be reopened to examine the liver and remove the pressure bandage. Please do what you think needs to be done. Thanks in advance.
While Israeli medical practitioners have helped treat wounded Syrians in the past few months of strife, The Times of Israel notes that this may be the first time a direct patient transfer from a Syrian medical facility to an Israeli hospital has taken place.
After United Nations peacekeeping forces transfered the patient across the border, Israeli doctors performed a second operation on the man's liver. Dr. Amram Hadari, head of the medical center's trauma unit, said the operation that Syrian medical practitioners performed was basic, but he credited them with saving the patient's life, CBN News reports.
More than 16 Syrians have been treated at the hospital in the northern city of Safed in the past three months, according to the Agence France-Presse. However, the cross-border procedures have not been without issue. Last week, Israeli police were called in to secure a grenade found in the pocket of a wounded Syrian man who was transferred across the border.
A U.N. report released Thursday notched the death toll in Syria at nearly 93,000 since the start of the country's civil war more than two years ago.
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