Gaza doctor loses leg but keeps working to treat children
STORY: :: This Gaza doctor lost his leg to a shrapnel injury last year but still treats children
:: Khaled al-Saedni, Pediatrician, Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
"It's impossible for me to stay away from the pediatric department. So, first opportunity I had to return to the pediatric department after I put on the prosthetic leg, I didn't hesitate for a second to return. I could sit, by the way, and not work, but it's not me, to sit around."
:: Deir Al-Balah, Gaza
:: January 9, 2025
"I was injured by shrapnel at the beginning of the war, during the first third of the war. I am already a diabetic patient - and that's why it escalated for me, leading to severe bone infections. So the doctors decided to amputate my right leg.”
"I have been displaced multiple times. Now, I am displaced and staying in the hospital. // I see all injuries, the conditions of children, and the new diseases and skin diseases that emerged with the overcrowding, we also had cases of polio that never existed in Gaza before."
"I hope it stops as soon as possible to put an end to the suffering of children, first and foremost. Children witnessed things they'd never seen before and heard things they'd never heard before."
"Everyone is a target. As for me, I lost a limb, thank God. There are people whose entire families were martyred - wives, children, parents, and siblings. Thank God, I am still fine, better than many others.”
Palestinian doctor Khaled al-Saedni works at the pediatric department of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza.
The 50-year-old doctor, who has worked at the hospital for more than 23 years, says he was injured by shrapnel in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the first months of the war on Gaza. Due to complications as a result of his diabetes, his leg was amputated.
But despite having to rely on a mobility aid, the pediatric doctor said he was back to work with children "at the first opportunity" he had after months of undergoing surgery and treatment.
Israel's military offensive has killed more than 46,500 Palestinians and injured more than 100,000, according to Gaza's health ministry. It has displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.
Israel started its air and ground assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
