Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
Science
Wassel Ajerk

Doctors left Syria for the safety of Turkey – now they are buried under rubble

Wassel Ajerk stands close to the apartment complex where he lives in Turkey. His building is still standing but others have collapsed - Wassel Ajerk
Wassel Ajerk stands close to the apartment complex where he lives in Turkey. His building is still standing but others have collapsed - Wassel Ajerk

In the early morning of Monday I was asleep in bed with my wife and my seven month old baby when at 4.17am we were woken up by things falling on us. The building was shaking, it felt like it was collapsing.

In the other bedroom my other three daughters – all under seven – were crying out asking us to save them. It was dark as the electricity was off. It was sudden and terrifying – two terrible minutes I have never faced before.

I got my children from the other room and we managed to escape down the emergency stairs in our pyjamas. Once we were outside, we saw that five buildings less than 50 metres away had completely collapsed.

I live in Antakya in southern Turkey with my family in a third floor flat. I come from Syria but every day I go back over the border to work in a hospital in Idlib in north-west Syria run by the charity the Syrian Expatriate Medical Association (SEMA).

We moved to Turkey in 2020 because my five-year old daughter had been terrified after experiencing shelling during the conflict in our home country. We thought here we would be safe.

Wassel with two of his young daughters - Wassel Ajerk
Wassel with two of his young daughters - Wassel Ajerk

Just 20 metres away from our apartment, there was a block with 54 flats where five other doctors from my hospital lived. Lots of Syrian doctors live in Antakya and Gaziantep as they are considered ‘safe’ places for doctors to live. But the building was crushed. They have not been seen since.

By now, it was raining heavily and freezing cold and we managed to find a one-storey building with a roof but no walls for shelter. We lit a fire and huddled with some other people who had left their homes.

We waited for two hours, and when the sun rose I went back to the apartment to get the car key and a few essentials. There was no internet so we could not find out if my mother and brothers in Syria were safe – we had to wait for five hours until we were able to connect. Thankfully they were fine.

Dwindling medical supplies

I knew I couldn’t get back across the border to work, so two days later we drove to Mersin, 300 km away on the Mediterranean coast – the first place we came to that had not been affected by the earthquake. From there we drove to Istanbul, where we had friends. The whole journey took 24 hours.

Now, my five-year-old daughter is most affected. We left Syria because of her – she was so afraid of noisy vehicles, any loud sound. Now this is repeated. She cries for two hours and clings to her mother. All of us need psychosocial support. It’s been very traumatic. I think I probably have PTSD. But I know how lucky I am.

I heard about one of my colleagues, a surgical assistant in our main hospital in Idlib, who lost all of his family. While he was reaching out to save his baby during the earthquake, something fell on his arm. He had to have his left arm amputated and he is now being treated in the ICU at the hospital where he and I work.

Wassel with some of his fellow medics, who travel between Turkey and Syria to treat patients - Wassel Ajerk
Wassel with some of his fellow medics, who travel between Turkey and Syria to treat patients - Wassel Ajerk

The hospitals are overloaded with patients and SEMA is urgently procuring medications and consumables. We need antibiotics, anaesthetics, orthopaedic screws and nails.

I have been speaking to my colleagues there and they say the intensive care unit and the emergency department have many crush injuries on patients’ hands and feet. The people who had crush injuries to their heads, abdomens and chests are the ones who sadly died.

We have had some ventilators sent to us but we need staff to use them. We only have 10 anaesthetist specialists in the whole of Syria and no sub-specialists.

Time is running out

The earthquake left the area without electricity and now we are depending on fuel and generators. SEMA has provided the hospital with extra fuel for the generators but we require a constant supply.

The situation is very miserable. The Syrian people have been displaced so many times as a result of the shelling but this is something different.

There is a real need to establish mobile medical teams to provide health services and psychosocial support for survivors in the camps for people displaced by conflict.

So many people have lost close family members. It’s so terrible and will obviously have a massive impact on people’s psychosocial health.

They are also in high need of shelter, food, health care and infrastructure, drinking water and sanitation and hygiene kits. Even before the earthquake and before the disaster situation, resources were very limited. This has increased and actually doubled the need.

Wassel in the aftermath of the earthquake - Wassel Ajerk
Wassel in the aftermath of the earthquake - Wassel Ajerk

We have no capabilities in north-west Syria, no local government or authorities compared with our neighbour Turkey.

Time is running out to extract people from underneath the buildings. But there is time to secure food, water, fuel and health and medical supplies. And SEMA teams are out right now distributing these supplies.

Thankfully, we have already been sent funds raised in the UK by the DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal through our partner Age International, which is allowing us to increase our response. I thank the British public for your support.

It’s very hard for my colleagues back in Idlib as they have all been affected, and me working remotely – I am returning to Syria this week. We are all very busy working to save lives. What else can we do? Even though we’ve been affected ourselves, we have to do what we can to help the survivors.

To donate, visit www.dec.org.uk

  • Dr Wassel Ajerk is a general surgeon at Idlib City Hospital and programs manager for Syrian Expatriate Medical Association (SEMA), a partner to DEC member Age International. SEMA runs three hospitals in northwest Syria funded by Age International.
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.