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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, June 10, 2016 | 12 Doctors should not be used as weapons of war: Nott by Nathan Howes Special to the Beaver As someone who's been on the front lines in Syria, David Nott knows too well the dangers and urgency of calls for action. A United Kingdom trauma surgeon, Nott shared his personal experiences and briefed doctors, health-care professionals and community members on the current Syrian crisis Saturday (June 4) at Oakville's Le Dome Banquet Hall. He was the keynote speaker at the locally-based (Canadian chapter) Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations' (UOSSM) fundraiser, which also featured a brief presentation from Dr. Anas Al-Kassem, UOSSM co-founder and current chairman of the Union of Syrian Relief OrganizationsCanada. Nott has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/ Doctors Without Borders Canada and completed medical missions in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and Darfur. UOSSM is a medical relief organization that provides humanitarian and health assistance to Syrian victims of war, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation. In collaboration with the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UOSSM documented the targeting of approximately 177 Syrian facilities from August 2012 to December 2015. "So many people were stunned by exactly what was happening. They could not believe this was actually happening in Syria," said Nott. "Health care is seen as a weapon. You take out a doctor, you take out 10,000 people they can't care for. At the moment in Syria, there are 10,000 people who cannot be looked at." In 2011, Nott spent a month with MSF in Misrata, Libya to help people recover from fragmentation injuries. MSF asked for his assistance a year later in Syria, as the conflict there escalated. Nott worked at a hospital near the village of Atmeh. While waiting to be picked up the day he arrived, Nott heard a loud rumble, which was from an approaching helicopter gunship. As it got closer to his position, it fired two rockets into Atmeh and "blew up a town with just civilians in it," the trauma surgeon said. "Because there were so many casualties, we went in. The second floor of the hospital was where the wards were. We started getting a few patients a day and then it went up to 1215 patients a day, significantly wounded," said Nott. "We would operate day and night on severely-injured patients. In 2012, it was fragmentation wounds, but the majority were gunshot wounds." Nott wanted to work "deep down" in the country and help Syria Relief in Aleppo, he said, seeking to find out what was happening after hearing news reports. "I worked in the Bab Al Hawa Hospital, which has grown into an enormous district general hospital. It has five Dr. David Nott operating theatres with a CT scanner. It takes the majority of trauma cases for north Syria," said Nott. He said people sustained injuries that weren't just "simple" wounds, they were multiple fragmentations all over their bodies. Nott cited one case of a 15-year-old boy who had sev- eral crumbling wounds to his legs, arms and chest. "His heart was actually stopping and he had no blood pressure at all. What it shows is a big fragmentation to the front of his chest. This fragment had got into his heart and was causing his heart to bleed," said Nott. "We put some stitches in the heart. About two hours later, his pulse came back to normal, his blood pressure came back to normal and this 15-year-old boy survived." When he returned in 2014, the situation was "completely different" because more terrorist groups entered Syria from nearby countries. "Aleppo in 2014 was completely different to 2013. The whole place has been utterly destroyed, not by snipers shooting each other, but by helicopters and airplanes targeting from high up, dropping bombs and rockets." While walking around the city one day, Nott became a target for a Syrian jet, which flew to about 500 feet above ground and fired a rocket. "Thank God it missed," he said. "It was one of the most scariest moments of my life, standing against a wall seeing a jet come towards me, thinking, "If it fires this rocket, that's the end of me.'" "That happened to me once. What was it like to be in Aleppo every single day facing this thing for years? Not only that, you get these helicopters dropping bombs." In 2015, Nott established the David Nott Foundation with his wife, Elly, to help surgeons develop operating skills for war zones and austere environments. With UOSSM, the pair created the Hostile Environment Surgical Training program. "I don't want to be in a situation where all these friends, all these doctors, who I trained in Syria, are being killed one by one. It must not happen. We cannot allow it to happen," said Nott. For more information on UOSSM, visit www.uossmcanada.org. kyBoot ­ Like you're on holiday all year round! Experience the most wonderful time of the year on one of our luxurious river cruises that takes you to explore the magic of Europe's Christmas markets along the Rhine and Danube rivers. 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