Prologue Journal

‘There is no safe place in Gaza’: Hong Kong nurse Krystal So on managing a maternity ward in a warzone

• prologu5
• 08/03/202408/03/2024

Hong Kong Free Press

When Hong Kong nurse Krystal So and five other Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff set foot in Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in early May, they saw broken doors, shattered windows and numerous dead bodies on the blood-stained floor. 

Odour filled the unlit complex as some technicians moved away hospital beds that had been damaged by members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a military raid in mid-February. The IDF said at the time that it had proof of Hamas, which it describes as a terrorist group, conducting military activities within the hospital and held hostages there. 

War broke out following a Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, during which more than 250 hostages were taken and over 1,000 people were killed.

Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed 39,363 Palestinians, Palestine’s Ministry of Health said on Monday, while 90,923 people have been injured. The area, together with the West Bank, form the state of Palestine and have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.

The IDF’s February storming of Nasser Hospital forced the medical facility, then one of the last functioning hospitals in the Gaza Strip, to shut down, dealing a “massive blow” to the besieged enclave’s health system, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in February. 

Hongkonger So had braced herself for such traumatic scenes before undertaking her first-ever humanitarian operation as a midwife activity manager in a war zone. The priority of her six-week mission was to reopen the ruined Nasser Hospital, in particular the maternity and surgical wards. 

Speaking to the press in Hong Kong last Thursday, So said it was “miraculous” that the medical complex had been able to open its doors to the public again on May 8. On the same day, the hospital saw its first normal delivery in months. 

What made the birth more meaningful, So said, was that the infant was born to a doctor who had lost three sons during the Israel-Hamas war. It was an emotional moment for the medics present, many of whom burst into tears when they heard the infant’s first cries, the midwife recalled. 

“[The baby] symbolised hope for all my colleagues. The baby’s cry marked a new stage of the hospital reopening,” So said in Cantonese. 

Between May 7 and June 17, more than 1,000 babies were delivered in Nasser Hospital, including those that had died in the womb. Managing a maternity ward in a warzone, the Hongkonger said she saw many cases of stillborn infants. Malnutrition was rife among the expectant mothers, and many had been distressed during pregnancy because of persistently having to flee shelling, bombing and shootings. 

The children’s intensive care unit at the hospital was also packed with undernourished infants. Several young patients were forced to share one bed as the ward was squeezed by overcapacity, So said. 

Apart from reopening the Nasser Hospital, another important programme So supervised was the setting up of breastfeeding facilities at the hospital and three primary health clinics. The nurse explained that it was crucial to provide places for mothers to nurse their infants, as breast milk was the primary food source for most infants in Gaza, where milk formula had become a scarcity during the war. But many families had lost their homes and were living in refugee camps or other temporary shelters, and privacy for breastfeeding mothers was lacking. 

The MSF team in Gaza also ran a sexual violence clinic and provided mental health support to Palestinians whose emotions were “tense” amid the warfare, including other hospital and clinic staff. 

“Not a single one of them had not lost a family member or a friend to the war,” So said. 

On top of handling personal loss, the medics were also dealing with scant medical supplies. Each drug was prescribed meticulously in fear that the medicine might run out soon, So said. 

Prior to her time in Gaza, So, who had more than a decade of experience working in both public and private hospitals in Hong Kong, participated in other humanitarian missions in Haiti, Nepal and Tanzania. 

But the Hongkonger was subject to some of the strictest security protocols she had ever encountered during her stay in the conflict zone. She was barred from roaming the streets and could only travel between the complex she was residing in and the hospital, the clinic, MSF’s office, and the venues where she met WHO representatives by car. 

During those rides, So would sometimes see locals clapping their hands and showing their appreciation for foreign aid. Others were less friendly, throwing stones or climbing on the vehicle to make demands, including asking for a ceasefire and calling for international attention on the war.

Asked if she was concerned about her safety during the mission, the Hongkonger said MSF had conducted multiple screenings and interviews to ensure she was ready for the high-risk trip. She also received training on how to handle herself in situations where gunshots were fired and bombs went off. 

“There is no safe place in Gaza,” she said. “When I was there, I felt like a local… I had to feel [their] fear in order to provide them with emotional support.”

So’s resilience was tested when Nasser Hospital was plunged into chaos after receiving around 40 corpses following a fatal attack. Some bodies were placed inside the maternity ward’s emergency room, filling the space with distressed family members of the deceased and women in labour. It was a situation unlike anything she had ever encountered before, So recalled. 

“Some of them died horribly… so we were all quite emotional. When we went back to our complex, there were some sessions for us to release [our emotions],” So said. 

Another time So’s emotions were stirred was when she was ordered to evacuate the MSF office ahead of an Israeli military operation. She was not able to set foot in the office again over the last three weeks of her mission due to security concerns. 

“Having built a relationship with my colleagues, it was very hard for me to leave… we hugged and cried together,” So said. 

In February, Israeli authorities claimed that more than 85 per cent of major medical facilities in Gaza were used by Hamas for terror operations. As of the beginning of July, MSF staff and patients under their care have had to leave 14 different health structures and experienced 26 violent incidents, the NGO said. 

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Gaza’s Ministry of Health, as of the start of July, 500 medical workers and more than 270 aid workers have lost their lives since the beginning of the war. Six of them were MSF staff. 

Following her return to Hong Kong, So said she was not used to feeling safe and at peace in the city after being exposed to the noise of bombings and shootings throughout her mission. 

So was the first aid worker from Hong Kong to represent MSF in Gaza, and she expressed her desire to return to the war-torn region and continue serving the people of Gaza, where UN data showed as many as 1.9 million out of an estimates 2.1 million have been internally displaced.

“Gaza is a place that really needs aid workers and medical services, especially maternity and paediatric care… After this trip, I’ve adapted to the culture there and met some colleagues, so I want to continue to support them and improve their lives and health,” So said. 

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https://hongkongfp.com/2024/08/03/there-is-no-safe-place-in-gaza-hong-kong-nurse-krystal-so-on-managing-a-maternity-ward-in-a-warzone/