Dalia Al-Hawari stood behind the glass partition within the hospital imaging room, watching in silence as her 10-year-old son ready to have a CT scan to find out the extent of his accidents.
Ahmed was enjoying with mates when he slipped and fell, hurting his head. The scan outcomes confirmed a fracture to his cranium and extreme bleeding, with medical doctors saying there wanted to be emergency medical intervention to cope with his accidents.
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“This was an emergency case. We couldn’t wait. We have been referred from Al-Aqsa Hospital to Yafa Hospital to endure the CT scan as a result of Ahmed wanted a fast prognosis,” Dalia added.
“[Initially] I used to be very scared as a result of I do know that getting a CT scan in Gaza can take weeks, and typically one or two months, as a result of overwhelming strain and the scarcity of accessible machines.”
Ahmed’s speedy evaluation meant he was lucky. However his mom’s preliminary issues mirrored these confronted by hundreds of patients in Gaza, the place entry to superior diagnostic imaging has turn into a dreaded ready sport. Delays in prognosis can severely impression folks’s lives and even end in dying.
It follows extensive damage to Gaza’s health infrastructure and shortages of medical tools attributable to Israel’s ongoing genocide.
In accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO), 94% of hospitals in Gaza have been broken or destroyed, leading to solely 19 out of 36 of the amenities partially functioning as of Could 2025.
Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza is additional limiting well being providers for Palestinians in Gaza.
Dr. Waseem Mansour, a doctor at Yafa Hospital in central Gaza, says the disaster within the medical imaging division is among the most severe penalties of the collapse of the healthcare system, decreasing the power of medical doctors to precisely diagnose situations and make applicable remedy choices.
Mansour says the variety of CT scan machines accessible in Gaza has declined considerably for the reason that conflict on Gaza began on October 8, 2023.
“Gaza had 18 CT scan machines earlier than the conflict, however at present solely three essential machines are operational to serve all governorates of the Strip,” he mentioned. “All seven MRI machines that have been accessible earlier than the conflict are actually out of service.”
That places monumental strain on the few current machines that stay operational, particularly after the CT scanner at Al-Aqsa Hospital stopped functioning, forcing different centres, together with Yafa Hospital, to obtain a bigger variety of circumstances from blast wounds to coronary heart assaults.
“We’re pressured to use strict rationing of examinations, giving precedence solely to life-threatening circumstances, whereas much less pressing circumstances have to attend,” he mentioned.
“Delays in performing imaging don’t merely imply delays in prognosis; they will result in severe problems, particularly for most cancers sufferers who want early detection and follow-up earlier than the illness progresses.”
Medical groups are pressured to make use of X-rays and ultrasound to cope with the backlog, however these don’t all the time present the wanted data accessible from CT scans or MRI.
“The absence of superior diagnostic instruments locations medical doctors in a serious problem when making the suitable medical choices,” he added.
Thirty-one-year-old Erin Al-Banna has been ready round six weeks for medical imaging after affected by kidney stones that prompted extreme, recurring ache.
Her hopes are dashed each time she hears that different circumstances have a better precedence and he or she remains to be ready for a remedy date.
“I’ve been ready for my flip for a month and a half. On daily basis I undergo from extreme cramps, and I depend on painkillers simply to tolerate the ache. However I have no idea how lengthy I’ll stay on this state of affairs,” she mentioned.
“We live in extraordinarily troublesome situations. The water we drink shouldn’t be the identical as earlier than, and many of the accessible meals is canned due to the circumstances of the conflict. I really feel that these situations have affected my well being, however I can not even endure the examination to know the actual purpose behind my continued ache.”
Whereas precedence is given to life-threatening circumstances as a result of restricted availability of imaging providers, sufferers similar to Erin stay on lengthy ready lists, turning their every day ache into a protracted wrestle linked to delayed prognosis and medical care.
As medical imaging providers proceed to deteriorate, sufferers face an extended journey of ready and uncertainty, whereas medical doctors try to make remedy choices with restricted instruments. The tales of Ahmed and Erin mirror solely a part of the struggling for hundreds of sufferers who want well timed and correct diagnoses however face delays that would value them their lives.
