The desperate reality in Idlib's neo-natal unit after Syria earthquake
ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy travelled to Northern Syria to report on the impact of February’s earthquake two months on.
She found a healthcare system at breaking point.
Neo-natal units at capacity due to the increase in premature births and hospitals at capacity treating the young victims of the quake.
He was born so recently the little boy didn’t even have a name.
Within an hour of his birth, his life was at an end.
The nursing team tried and tried to inflate his tiny lungs and help his failing heart but there was nothing they could do.
They wrapped him in a green sheet, his body was left on a small bed ready for collection by this family.
It is a desperately familiar, tragic reality in the Neo-natal unit in Idlib.
When we visited three years ago the hospital was already struggling.
The war had triggered a surge in premature births. Now, with that war still ongoing, the earthquake has done the same.
Because Turkey’s healthcare system is now struggling with earthquake patients, they can’t even send the sickest children across the border anymore.
And it’s not just the babies. Every age group is affected, from toddlers to teenagers.
According to UNICEF, of the 10,400 injured in Idlib 20% were children. Of the 103,000 newly displaced, 52% were children.
What a tragedy for generations who will now grow up without limbs, without relatives and without peace or peace of mind.
The war was one challenge, now they have to live with the fear that the very land they live on still has the power to do such harm.
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