Mendacity in her hospital mattress, carrying a yellow t-shirt lined in lions, leopards and toucans, little Ivana Skayki is the very definition of innocence.
Her tender, imploring eyes stare again at you, as if to query what she’s doing there. She’s not fairly two years outdated, so all she understands is the ache.
Warning: This story accommodates pictures of a kid with severe burns.
Practically half her tiny physique is roofed in burns – from her head proper all the way down to her toes.
Her horrific accidents are the results of an Israeli air strike on her hometown of al Aliyah in southern Lebanon on September 23.
Ivana’s household had simply packed their baggage and have been about to flee north when the missile hit.
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Fatimah Skayki together with her daughter, Ivana, in hospital
Her mom, Fatimah, was getting ready breakfast within the kitchen and escaped severe harm. However her daughters have been upstairs on the balcony and have been shortly engulfed in flames.
“Everything was on fire, there was black smoke,” Fatimah remembers.
“I solely managed to seek out my youngsters from their screams.
“It was a very, very painful day. And I’m still in this nightmare.”
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One-year-old Ivana Skayki was injured in an Israeli air strike on her hometown in southern Lebanon
Fatimah and her husband Mohammad needed to leap from a window with Ivana and her seven-year-old sister Rahaf in an effort to escape.
Warning: Graphic pictures exhibiting severe burns beneath
They managed to succeed in the town of Tyre, the place the ladies acquired remedy. However their accidents have been so extreme they needed to be transferred to Beirut’s Geitaoui hospital – residence to Lebanon’s solely specialist burns unit.
“Honestly, I didn’t have any hope she would survive,” Fatimah admits, taking a look at Ivana and wiping away a tear.
“She was in a very bad situation. She couldn’t move her legs, her mouth, nothing.”
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Ivana’s mom did not assume she would survive
After weeks of remedy, together with a number of pores and skin grafts, Ivana’s head and forearms are nonetheless wrapped in gauze, and far of the pores and skin on her legs is pink, uncooked and peeling.
However she is previous the worst, and can quickly be a part of Rahaf in being discharged.
For the medics right here, although, the work by no means stops.
Ever since Israel escalated its aerial marketing campaign in opposition to Hezbollah six weeks in the past, the inflow of burn victims has been relentless.
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Ivana and her sister have been taken to Lebanon’s solely specialist burns unit
“We’ve been working so hard, even during our days off, to cope with the overcrowding.”
The hospital has tripled the capability of the burns unit to attempt to meet demand, by establishing further beds on new flooring.
However regardless of their greatest efforts, they can not save everybody. One man was not too long ago admitted with fourth-degree burns to 90% of his physique.
“We do everything for these patients, but sometimes it’s not enough,” Ali Hamadeh, one other nurse, mentioned.
Israel says it would not intend to hurt civilians and claims Hezbollah makes use of them as human shields by basing fighters in residential areas.
Israel’s strikes in Lebanon have killed greater than 2,500 folks over the previous yr. In Israel, 69 folks have been killed by Hezbollah projectiles.
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