There are serious health problems being experienced in the canton of Kobanê in Rojava after all three hospitals were bombed during ISIS attacks. Doctor Welat Xelîl Omer, who has remained in Kobanê to treat the wounded despite the dangers, said: "We are only able to deal with basic wounds.”

The three hospitals in the town have been bombed by ISIS gangs during their attacks and are no longer functioning. There are only 4 doctors left in the town where dozens of people are wounded every day and there is a civilian population of over ten thousand in addition to fighters. One of the doctors, Welat Xelîl Omer, who is trying to treat the wounded in a small 2-room house, said that two thirds of his patients were civilians. Omer said that his patients were generally the elderly, women and children, adding that in addition to a shortage of doctors there was a serious lack of medicine.

Omer said that in recent days with the deterioration in the weather there had been a rise in the number of patients coming to see him, adding that the shortage of food and poor diet caused by the conflict was inviting illness. Omer said: "We don’t just treat wounded fighters. We have lots of civilian patients, too. We do what we can despite the lack of resources, but we are only able to deal with basic wounds.”

Omer added that there was also a shortage of medicine, thanking those who had recently sent some supplies. “But we do not have enough. Only one in three of our patients are fighters. Everyone has a different problem and needs different medication. There are only 4 of us doctors here, most of the doctors had to leave. We have two rooms here, one of them is for examinations and the other for operations. We have hardly any equipment and all three of our hospitals were bombed.”

Omer added that they had nowhere to look after patients, saying: "After treating patients there are some houses in the town where treatment continues. There are around ten thousand civilians in the town. Some have been wounded by shrapnel from shells and mortars.”

10 died from blood loss

Omer continued: “one of the biggest problems we have is the fact we are a border gate.” He said that ten people had died from loss of blood on account of delay in opening the border crossing. “6 of these were YPG/YPJ fighters and 2 were from the Free Syrian Army. They were seriously wounded and needed immediate treatment, but they were kept waiting at the border for nearly 5 hours, and subsequently died.” Omer concluded by saying: “If the border is opened and if our people in the North support us and doctors come to assist us we will be able to resolve the health problems here. If there are people with serious injuries we sent them to the North as we cannot treat them here.”