![[Yemen] The Day Our Hospital Was Hit With An Airstrike](https://cdn.blogarama.com/images/posts_thumbs_site_id/929/92861-752399077.jpg "[Yemen] The Day Our Hospital Was Hit With An Airstrike")
On August 15, 2016 approximately 3.45 pm local time, Abs Rural Hospital, an MSF-supported hospital in Hajjah governorate, northwestern Yemen, was hit by an airstrike. The following article was what I felt after the incident.
Please read the official article and report from MSF here and here.
before August 15, 2016
==============================================================================
"It could've been me."
The thought kept being repeated over and over again in my head. On a normal day, when a car transferring a patient stops in front of the triage area, I would approach the car--few times even climb on the back of the pickup--to assess the patient before we take them inside ER. But, I was not there that afternoon. I was at the office. So, I don't know if it's sheer luck or a twist of fate that I was not at the hospital on the afternoon of August 15 2016, either way I'm vvery grateful.
Another thought that was on my mind quite constant after the airstrike was that we had a couple of newborn babies in the small room inside the ER. They just started to breathe and experience life when an airstrike hit the hospital, a place where they are supposed to receive care. Up to now, I have no idea how or where they are. God's be, they are safe.
Another thought that was on my mind quite constant after the airstrike was that we had a couple of newborn babies in the small room inside the ER. They just started to breathe and experience life when an airstrike hit the hospital, a place where they are supposed to receive care. Up to now, I have no idea how or where they are. God's be, they are safe.
in-patient department right: emergency room
I had so many plans. We had so many plans. We were looking forward to do so many things in the project when someone just decided to blow a hospital, a place where life is preserved and cherished.
I feel so upset. So furious. How could someone send an airstrike to a hospital, a place where sick people are cured, where wounds are healed.
And I feel devastated remembering how all the patients that we treated, now can no longer receive the treatment they are supposed to get: it is a basic human right to receive a good quality medical care.
I feel utterly sad because our national staffs and colleagues don't feel safe anymore at their work place. I also feel sad remembering how many people actually moved closer to Abs when they learned MSF started supporting the hospital a year ago: they thought if MSF was there, they would be safe, they would be secured.
Whoever we are, wherever we come from, we are all affected by this incident. And it's a huge hit not only to our beneficiaries or to the people working in the project, but also MSF movement in general and humanitarian aid activities all over the world.
Condemning is not enough. Conflicting parties must change the code of conduct. They must change the way they play the modern warfare. Hospital is not a target. It never was, it never will, it should not have been, it should not be.
I feel so upset. So furious. How could someone send an airstrike to a hospital, a place where sick people are cured, where wounds are healed.
And I feel devastated remembering how all the patients that we treated, now can no longer receive the treatment they are supposed to get: it is a basic human right to receive a good quality medical care.
I feel utterly sad because our national staffs and colleagues don't feel safe anymore at their work place. I also feel sad remembering how many people actually moved closer to Abs when they learned MSF started supporting the hospital a year ago: they thought if MSF was there, they would be safe, they would be secured.
Whoever we are, wherever we come from, we are all affected by this incident. And it's a huge hit not only to our beneficiaries or to the people working in the project, but also MSF movement in general and humanitarian aid activities all over the world.
Condemning is not enough. Conflicting parties must change the code of conduct. They must change the way they play the modern warfare. Hospital is not a target. It never was, it never will, it should not have been, it should not be.
left: emergency room; brown building: in-patient department
