Three Syrian doctors — two of them wearing surgical masks to hide their identities from Bashar al-Assad’s regime — testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday about the human toll that has accompanied six years of war in Syria.
One of them, Dr. Farida — referred to by a single first name in the hearing — described an instance when she was in the midst of performing a cesarean section when a missile struck the fourth floor of the hospital where she was operating in besieged Aleppo, causing the roof to collapse.
“The surgical staff had to flee the room, but the doctors couldn’t, because we were forced to clean debris out of the patient’s abdominal cavity. Thankfully we were able to save her life,” Dr. Farida said.