ER Doctors in Gaza Struggle to Care for Steady Stream of Horrific Injuries
GUPTA: Eyes on the Middle East and Gaza today. Even if peace does take hold, the damage from the latest fighting is going to be tough to repair. And something's lost can never be regained. You know, I've been in war zone hospitals all over the world. And the stories of patients and the health care teams that risk their lives to save them are extraordinary. Couple weeks ago, CNN's Karl Penhaul took us inside one of them and showed us the struggle to keep up with the stream of desperation that kept rolling in the door.</s>KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dead on arrival, the horror, civilians and medics at breaking point.</s>DR. SHADI AL-QADI, GAZA EUROPEAN HOSPITAL: We feel exhausted. We feel</s>PENHAUL: No time to rest. It's a scramble to rescue survivors. Surgeons told us not to film this casualty, a hint, perhaps, he was a militant fighter. But most on the operating table at south Gaza's European Hospital are clearly noncombatants. (on camera): Their patient is a 23-year-old female, and they have showed me on the X-rays she has a basic fracture on her leg. (voice-over): They say that was caused by a rocket blast. The surgeons' focus, the blink of a patient's eye, the beep of vital signs. Dr. Hasan (ph) is sick of it -- sick, he tells me, of stitching bodies mutilated by shrapnel, sick of war.</s>DR. YOUSIF AL-AKRAD, GAZA EUROPEAN HOSPITAL: We have received 61 patients, injured patients. So, we don't have enough</s>PENHAUL: Down the hallway, surgeons patch up a toddler. They say the rest of his family is dead. Bone and brain surgeons do skin grafts. Fighting rages close to the hospital. They just can't transfer him to a plastic surgeon. Medicine and supplies are running low.</s>HASSAN KHALED YOUNIS, GAZA EUROPEAN HOSPITAL: If the war is still one more week or more than this, we will reach to -- we don't have</s>PENHAUL: The fight for Gaza has become a dirty war, no sanctuary for innocent.</s>DR. HASSEM AL-MASRI, GAZA EUROPEAN HOSPITAL: The situation is very dangerous. No place in Gaza Strip, not even one square meter is safe in Gaza Strip.</s>PENHAUL: Dr. Al-Masri is afraid that he like others could be killed at any time, so he carries his I.D. everywhere. (on camera): So you're preparing for death as well?</s>AL-MASRI: Yes, we are preparing ourself for death.</s>PENHAUL (voice-over): Men dazed with amputated limbs, a child with head trauma battling to get up. Many medics tell me only faith can keep them on their feet.</s>DR. JAMAL ABU HILAL, GAZA EUROPEAN HOSPITAL: Got to give our -- the power to work to work, even we work sometimes 20 hours continuous.</s>PENHAUL: But even the call of God drowned out by the agony. Karl Penhaul, CNN, Gaza.</s>GUPTA: Again, that was a couple weeks ago, but it's a perspective. A medical perspective that I hope doesn't get lost in all of this, we do know the hospitals that you just saw is still up and running. Thanks to Karl Penhaul. Up next, we're shifting gears. Many people thought this was never going to happen in their lifetimes, a federal law introduced in Congress to legalize some types of marijuana.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): You've seen the labels, gluten free, but what does that really mean? First things first, gluten is a protein found in wheat and other grains in foods like pasta and bread. For the 3 million Americans with celiac disease, it can be a real problem.</s>DR. LARRY SPERLING, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Celiac is a disease of inflammation of the intestines, it can produce intestinal like symptoms, upset stomach --</s>GUPTA: Believe it or not, up until this week, there were no regulations behind the label. But starting this week, the FDA will only allow foods to be labeled gluten-free if they have less than 20 parts per million of gluten. That's the threshold that doctors believe those with celiac disease can tolerate.