“60% of patients with one eye missing”… Doctors tell the horror story in the country

At least 32 people have died in Lebanon in two days: 20 on Wednesday in the explosion of walkie-talkies, and 12 on Tuesday in the explosion of thousands of pagers. Each time, booby-trapped objects, most likely by Israel, have caused scenes of horror in the country.

While the scale of the operation and its discretion in succeeding remain an “impressive” demonstration of the Israeli secret services (?), the toll in Lebanese hospitals is extremely heavy. More than 2,700 wounded, including 300 in critical condition, were treated, according to the Lebanese Minister of Health. More than 400 surgical operations were carried out on Tuesday alone.

Terrible eye damage

Several doctors, often on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the press, testified. “People were crying, shouting: ‘I can’t see anything,'” confided an anesthesiologist at the Hôtel-Dieu de France in Beirut, to Guardian. “We have never had so many eye emergencies. It left 2,000 people disabled at the same time,” confided another. Many pagers or walkie-talkies exploded extremely close to the victims’ faces, causing significant damage, especially to the particularly sensitive eye area.

Another doctor told the BBC about the “worst day of his life”, with 60% of patients coming in with one eye missing. Another said about three-quarters of “these patients have lost an eye, with lots of burns and bits of metal in their eyes.”

“20% of patients lost both eyes”

“Many colleagues say it’s worse than the injuries [oculaires] of August 4th,” he continues, referring to the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020. According to him, “15 to 20% […] have lost both eyes irreversibly.”

Another doctor, Dania El Hallak, who works at the Beirut hospital, wonders about the impact on psychological health: “I saw people being massacred for the first time. Is it possible to ever recover from such a spectacle?”

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