The territory’s skilled physicians are using the power of the sun to power 3D printers to create medical devices for complex fractures that have become a symptom of Israeli bombing-abundant hospitals as they struggle to function amid frequent power outages.
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Dr. Fadel Naim, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and the hospital’s acting general, reported to Al Jazeera that doctors were creating low-cost 3D-printed components to support shattered limbs to support patients who have lost their balance.
He explained how the devices can be assembled using 3D components, metal rods, nuts, and bolts, at a low cost because the types of fractures we received, especially in this war, were so complicated, so complex, that the external fixator was the most appropriate [treatment]
With the use of solar energy and fixators that would ordinarily cost more than $500 per piece, Naim and the medical solidarity organization Glia collaborated to spearhead the innovation in the enclave.
Zakaria, one of three patients whose limbs were spared amputations after receiving locally manufactured fixators, was met on Al Jazeera. He was the first patient to receive treatment using the device after his leg was shattered by shrapnel from an Israeli strike and was relocated southwards from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza to Deir el-Balah.
“In August, I was injured, and the hospital took me there without any medical care, but after two weeks, they brought me to the operating room and used a new leg fix.” It was a Palestinian-made device, Zakaria, he said, “surprisingly, sitting in his tent.
Dr. Naim evaluated his patient and declared, “He has no pain, has no limitations in his range of motion, and he can walk.”
According to Al Jazeera’s reporter from Gaza, the ground-breaking technology is “a lifeline in Gaza where the health system is crumbling” and that it has completely lost its supply of electricity.
Palestinian doctors are still creating, resisting, and surviving in a world where everything is crumbling, she said.
12 more patients are currently awaiting treatment, according to Glia’s press release, “demonstrating both the urgent need for these devices and the life-saving impact of local production under siege.”
The organization claimed that the Gaza-led project had “global significance,” demonstrating how the technology could be applied in “extreme conditions,” and “offering a model for other conflict zones, disaster-affected regions, and climate-vulnerable communities around the world.”
Throughout the entire conflict, Israeli military operations have ravaged Gaza, with 63 percent of the hospitals still inoperable as of December 9.
In the enclave, where 1.5 million Palestinians are still displaced, 282, 000 housing units were reported last month by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Source: Aljazeera
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