‘I held 2-year-old Gaza girl’s bleeding brain in my hands before she died’: Nurse

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

The situation in the besieged Gaza Strip can only be described as genocide perpetrated by the Israeli regime, says an American medic who volunteered at various hospitals in the Palestinian territory.

Wilhelmi Massay, a critical care and trauma nurse from Omaha, Nebraska, spent nearly a month volunteering at the Indonesian Hospital in Deir el-Balah (northern Gaza) and the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis (southern Gaza) recently.

In an interview with the Press TV website, he shared his harrowing experiences and observations of working amid the ongoing genocidal war that completed one year last week.

Massay worked in both southern and northern Gaza, though most of his time was spent at the Indonesian Hospital, one of the largest healthcare facilities in northern Gaza, which has been severely damaged by Israeli attacks.

“It was a massacre—death, suffering, and devastation at every turn. Israeli bombings targeted displaced civilians, and sniper fire was a relentless threat,” Massay recalled.

“The violence was a constant reminder of mortality, as Palestinians in Gaza faced annihilation. After every airstrike, we dealt with mass casualties—many of whom did not survive.”

He described the situation as a “brutal, relentless conveyor belt of killings orchestrated by Israeli forces,” which since October of last year has claimed over 42,100 lives, the majority of whom are children and women.

Massay was one of 99 American healthcare workers—physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners, nurses, and midwives—who volunteered in Gaza and wrote an open letter to US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris last month, summarizing their experiences and observations and calling for an immediate ceasefire.

On his experiences in Gaza, Massay told the Press TV website that he and his colleagues treated an “overwhelming number of gunshot wounds to the head, neck, chest, and lower extremities.”

“These shots were deliberately aimed by Israeli forces as fatal shots to the heart, head, and neck. Most of the victims were children under 18, with women making up a large portion of those killed or injured,” he said, noting that 69 percent of fatalities in Gaza are children and women.

The most harrowing case he encountered was that of a 2-year-old girl who was brought to the hospital after an Israeli airstrike destroyed her family home.

“I held her brain in my hands, trying to stop the bleeding. Her head injury was so severe that despite all our efforts, there was little we could do,” he recounted.

“Before she died, she looked up at me as if to say goodbye. Her faint cry, groaning, and death rattle still haunt me. She died in my arms that day, but her memory stays with me forever.”

Regarding the challenges faced by medical practitioners in Gaza hospitals, Massay noted that they are “immense.” He pointed to a “severe lack of supplies, medicine, and equipment” as one of the major issues.

“Many local doctors and nurses have been either displaced or killed, leaving a small, overworked group trying to manage an overwhelming number of cases. One of the most significant challenges was working in hospitals that were barely functioning due to the destruction caused by Israeli bombings,” he said.

At the Indonesian Hospital, where he volunteered most days in July and August, the Emergency Room and intensive care unit were “barely operational,” he said.

“Patients often lay on the blood-soaked floor after every Israeli airstrike on displaced civilians. The hospital's oxygen system was bombed, leaving us to work without basic resources like oxygen, water, or medicine,” he told the Press TV website.

“The situation was equally dire in both the southern and northern parts of Gaza. The conditions were a nightmare for any medical professional.”

Massay dismissed Israeli claims that Palestinian resistance movements hide weapons in hospitals, calling such assertions part of “Israel's propaganda to justify their attacks on Gaza.”

“I saw no evidence of any weapons or military activity in the hospitals. What I did witness were mass casualties—innocent civilians who were killed by Israeli airstrikes,” he said.

The hospitals, he asserted, were filled with the “wounded and dying, not weapons”, adding that the Israeli attacks are aimed at “annihilating the people of Gaza” and these claims are “nothing more than an attempt to cover up the atrocities.”

“That claim is an excuse to bomb hospitals, kill or injure healthcare workers because after the healthcare workers have been killed, civilians that are injured will have no chance of survival,” he said.

“It is a well-orchestrated genocide by Israeli forces to annihilate healthcare workers and then kill the remainder of civilians or displace the sick, the dying, the wounded and the injured after Israeli bombings.”

Meanwhile, the death toll from the year-long Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has risen to 42,227, most of them children and women, with 98,464 others wounded. 

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir