Cries for help from wounded Syria refugees in battle for medical care

Syrian refugees are struggling to get treatment. In his final dispatch, Martin Bentham visits a clinic in Jordan where patients have distressing stories
4 October 2013

The cry “help me, help me” rings out as the Syrian woman spots aid workers across a crowded waiting room in a Jordanian clinic. Looking forlorn, Lama Mtan tells how she came to Jordan with her 23-year-old son after his leg was hit by a rocket, but has since struggled to find him the medical care he needs. She wants staff at the clinic to refer her son — who had pins implanted during surgery in Syria — to hospital for treatment and said that until now “it has been impossible to speak to anyone” willing to help. As she continues her story, 21-year-old Muhammad Ghbari hobbles in to the waiting room. He wants to obtain a prosthesis for his right leg. A Free Syria Army fighter, he tells how he spent 10 days watching the limb rot after becoming trapped in his home by clashes. “There was an explosion and something hit my leg. I saw my leg with my own eyes become infected and start losing flesh,” he said.

After an operation in a rebel field clinic he fled to Jordan in the summer, but has also been unable to find the specialist help he needs. Others at the clinic, run in the northern city of Irbid by the Jordanian Health Aid Society charity, have equally distressing stories. Samjhara Jarbouti, 46, says she fled from Dera in October last year with her five children. They went first to the vast Zaatari refugee camp. When her husband arrived soon after, he suffered a heart attack, which she blames on the stress of fleeing their home, leaving him incapacitated ever since.

She said the United Nations food vouchers that she, in common with all officially registered refugees, has been given have so far helped her survive, but insists that her husband needs surgery for his cardiac illness if the family is to have a viable future.

A hospital appointment for him is too far off so she has come to the clinic to highlight the family’s plight in the hope of obtaining more rapid assistance.

Each of the cases demonstrates not only the severe health problems faced by substantial numbers of Syrian refugees, but also the difficulty many find in obtaining treatment. Key reasons include a lack of knowledge about where to go in what for Syrians is a foreign country, coupled with a bureaucratic registration and appointment system for refugees which can lead to months of delays. There is also the burden on a Jordanian health service struggling to cope with the scale of the influx, one of a number of problems that led it to join other countries affected by the Syrian conflict to appeal this week at the UN for extra help.

On top of this, there are further looming health problems. One is malnutrition. The charity Medair is carrying out a screening programme and has already found evidence among pregnant Syrian women. The numbers are expected to increase as the money that the refugees brought with them runs out.

A further health threat is the dire quality of accommodation. Many Syrians have left the formal refugee camps and moved to private apartments in the hope of improving their prospects of work or to gain independence.

Spiralling rents and food prices, which are affecting Jordanians too, mean many can afford only slum properties with leaking roofs and dangerous wiring. A Medair project later this year will refurbish some of these homes to protect refugees from the winter and additional health problems.

Medair’s regional health adviser Gabriele Fänderconcedes said the scale of the challenge remains considerable. “Imagine an extra 10 per cent of people being added to your country’s population and all of them needing health services. On top of that, there are all the war injuries and the psychological problems caused by the trauma. These are all expensive and long-term problems. That’s why, although Jordan has a high quality health service, it is overwhelmed. Finding solutions will take a long time.”

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