World Bulletin / News Desk
Malaika, a 29-year-old head nurse, holds Ali, a 2-day-old infant, as he struggles to take his final breaths. Born in eastern Aleppo, one of the hardest-hit cities in Syria's five-year civil war, Ali was born with chest issues that forced him to rely on an oxygen pump and an incubator in the neonatal unit at Aleppo Children's Hospital. The hospital is supported by the Independent Doctors Association, a Syrian NGO providing medical services in Aleppo. After a bomb hit their unit, baby Ali, deprived of oxygen died in the nurses arms.
In the basement where they had sought refuge, three more babies died from dust inhalation during the attacks. "I was crying. It was very painful," Malaika said through an interpreter. "It was intentional. It was a war crime."
Her house was destroyed in one of countless airstrikes, so she sleeps at the hospital. Her entire extended family has fled to Turkey, and she is the only one left.
Her husband divorced her and took their two daughters to Marea, a town north of Aleppo that is inaccessible to those still in the city. He's a supporter of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. He was angry that, as a nurse, she treated an injured rebel fighter.
Malaika is one of only a handful of health care workers still in the besieged city of Aleppo. The eastern part of the city was taken over by rebel groups in 2012.
Only 35 doctors are left to care for the 300,000 residents who remain.
Source: CNN
Malika is the head nurse of the children's hospital in #Aleppo. She refuses to leave! Braver than most men I know. pic.twitter.com/t0JD7dZlzd
— LiveUpdatesFromSyria (@liveupdatesyria) August 16, 2016
