geirmund

The following is a translation and a transcript of a short interview with NORWAC surgeon Erik Fosse soon after he returned to Egypt. Fosse and his colleague Mads Gilbert have spent the last two weeks at Shifa hospital in Gaza.

ERIK FOSSE: We are now completely exhausted. We have been working for over 14 days with a large number of serious injuries that just keeps coming in [to the hospital]. Several of the hospital employees have experienced that members of their families are being admitted; they have lost cousins and one of my colleagues have had both…I mean, two of his children were seriously injured in a bombing. So this is an extreme situation where they by now start to get tired, they are depressed, they start to cry when asked about different things, and they are getting apathetic. So, I would call the situation critical.

INTERVIEWER: What do they need most in there now?

ERIK FOSSE: They need…First of all they need the bombing to stop so that this stream of injurious stop. It is odd to suggest that we just send in more bandages, more surgeons and that we just continue operating on people. Most important is to stop the injuries. The other is that the community [Gaza] needs electricity, water and vital foods. So, they need the borders to open.

The Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) is a humanitarian organization that works mainly with health care issues. Their work is based on the principle of solidarity and equality regardless of religion, race and ethnic belonging.

This post made use of the mp3 file made available on aftenposten.no