INTERVIEW/Taiwanese doctor reflects on work and death in war-ravaged Gaza

Taipei, Oct. 30 (CNA) "Even trees are a luxury," Taiwanese plastic surgeon Wu Yi-chun (鄔逸群) told CNA in an interview about his recent experiences working in Gaza.

"The trees are almost gone; diminished by the fires of war or cut down to serve as materials for tents that become homes to locals," Wu explained, reflecting on his time serving as a surgeon in southern Gaza for a month in July.

"The tree in my drawing still exists only because it grows within the walls of the doctors' dormitory."

The director of the division of plastic surgery at Taipei Medical University's Shuang Ho Hospital in New Taipei, Wu is also a member of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), more commonly known by its English name, Doctors Without Borders.

Wu received an email from the humanitarian organization in June, asking if any doctors were available to take on an urgent posting to war-ravaged Gaza within two weeks. He responded the following day in the affirmative.

By July, Wu found himself passing into the Gaza Strip via an Israeli checkpoint.

The Taiwanese doctor in his 40s described this experience as like flipping a channel on a television, with images of death and devastation suddenly appearing before his eyes as he entered Khan Younis, the Palestinian city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip where he was stationed for work.

One of the most shocking memories for Wu was witnessing a nurse run out of his operating room after taking a call.

Wu described how he later found his colleague inconsolable outside the operating room because she had just been told that her five-year-old son had been killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Reflecting on the colleague's loss even as she was trying to save another person's life, he said, "My colleagues in Gaza are all related to the victims (of the war)."

Working amidst war

The Taiwanese surgeon was based at Nasser Hospital, treating patients who had suffered severe burns from fires and explosions in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict that began with a Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

"I had never seen 400 to 500 people flood into an emergency room within one to two hours all at once before," he said, talking about the first time he was asked to work in the emergency room after a bombing had occurred nearby.

He said he has vivid memories of people yelling inside the hospital, and -- with terrible frequency -- patients having sheets placed over their bodies after being pronounced dead.

With resources such as staff, hospital beds and medicine in short supply, Wu found that patients whom he would generally be confident of saving in Taiwan would face a much lower chance of survival in Gaza.

"The entire room was filled with kids under the age of five or older," he said. "They lost arms and legs, and their entire faces were burned."

"What will happen to them in the future?"

The pressure of working in a war zone

Wu told CNA that, though he never saw battles firsthand, the sounds of nearby fighting were constant, so much so that hearing thunder in Taiwan upon his return momentarily stunned him, before he remembered that he was already safely back home.

On the stress of his job, Wu admitted that it took a substantial toll on his well-being.

Since his life in Gaza was centered on the hospital and his dorm, and internet connectivity was hard to come by, Wu said his main form of relaxation was the sketchbook he used to document his days.

Speaking to CNA, he said the last page of his Gaza sketchbook holds a special place in his heart.

The page depicts countless rocks covering a landscape accentuated by derelict buildings.

According to Wu, this kind of image is now a common sight in Gaza, as the rocks are in fact the make-shift tombstones of victims of the war.

A possible return

Despite being surrounded by devastation during his month in Gaza, Wu said the thought of giving up on his mission for the sake of safety never crossed his mind.

He said that he understood that while there was a time limit to his deployment, the people of Gaza would continue living in the nightmare of war for the foreseeable future.

Despite their hardships, Wu said he was honored to feel the warmth and hospitality of the people in Gaza when locals presented him with gifts such as canned beef and warm coffee -- even though they themselves had almost nothing to live on.

"I feel like I've left a part of myself in Gaza," Wu said.

Wu told CNA he currently plans to return to Gaza in early 2025.