Bay Area doctor evacuated by US from Gaza details what she encountered during medical mission
SAN CARLOS, Calif. (KGO) -- A South Bay doctor is home after getting stuck in Gaza. She knew the risks when she took on a volunteer medical mission to the war zone. But when the Rafah border was closed by Israel in mid-May she got stuck.
It was a bittersweet homecoming for Dr. Helah Sheikholeslami, who arrived at San Francisco International Airport this past weekend.
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At one point, she wasn't sure how she would get home.
"I am glad to be home, glad to be with family, but there are a lot of people that I left behind there. Not just patients, but also colleagues, coworkers, who have not been able to evacuate yet," says Dr. Sheikholeslami, a physician at Sutter Health in San Carlos.
It was her first time in a war zone, treating upwards of 40 patients a day, and with limited medical supplies, at the al-Aqsa Hospital in southern Gaza.
"People living in tents, coming in with skin issues and chronic care that really needed to be addressed as well. Refiling their medication for blood pressure, for diabetes," said Sheikholeslami.
She was only supposed to be gone two weeks to Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have fled since the start of the war. But while she was there, the Israeli military invaded and closed the Rafah border. Sheikholeslami was stuck.
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"Things just got worse. Medication ran out. There was no new medication coming in because of the closure of the Rafah border. It was kind of working with your hands tied behind your back," she says.
The next few days, her team struggled to find refuge, limited to where they could go with destruction all around, poor air quality and Israeli military drones monitoring the area.
But they decided to keep working.
"You never knew what could happen. You did hear bombs, they were at a distance. You kind of (were) in survival mode yourself," says Sheikholeslami. "The al-Aqsa Hospital ran out of fuel."
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Her family and local Muslim organizations worked with the U.S. State Department and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo's office to help get her out.
Sheikholeslami says her mission to Rafah was to help those in need. Now that she is home and reunited with her family, she isn't ruling out going back, perhaps once the situation improves.
"Mission is never accomplished. Mission is ongoing. I don't think the mission is over until the war is over. Until there is a ceasefire. Until there is an end to the blockade. That aid can get in," says Sheikholeslami. "We do whatever we can, on our part. We can't remain silent."
