Aleppo , Syria ( CNN ) -- They are so used to seeing blood outside Dar alShifa hospital , the magnet of all suffering in Aleppo , that passersby simply walk over it , oblivious . When they mop out the building 's tiny reception area , the blood runs in small , dirty streams into the gutters . This is a hospital trying to get by day-to-day while lacking the most basic in supplies . It has itself been hit by shelling : two separate attacks have left its right side punctured with gaping holes in what was once the maternity ward . One afternoon , a rush of the most frail and vulnerable come towards the exhausted doctors ; children , some suffering from sheer terror . One is malnourished . They have cuts , bruises -- but more often much worse . The government has , the doctors say , closed the main children 's hospital owing to a paperwork issue , so this is where they must come . Baby survives as family dies in Syrian onslaught . Mohamed is aged eight and was hit by shrapnel from regime shelling in his right leg . It shattered his femur . In Europe , surgery would mean he 's playing football again within months , but here a list of precarious challenges form . He remains quiet , brave , patient almost , as the doctors work out what to do . The tough natural solution they hit on is a stark reminder of how desperate the task is of getting medical care to the wounded here in rebel-held territory . The government hospital has better equipment , and can probably save Mohamed 's leg . So , lifting him on the blankets they use as makeshift stretchers , they take him , bewildered and confused , into a nearby taxi to cross the front lines . His ordeal is far from over . It is perverse to know that only those who hurt him can also heal him . A Syrian family 's desperate story . Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , whose face adorns plastic skeletons used as teaching aids and trash cans inside Dar alShifa , still controls the best hospitals and much of the most precious medical resource : doctors . One medic , terrified enough that he does n't want his face or voice on camera , is absurdly brave in the risks he takes every day to work in Dar alShifa . During the morning and afternoon , he works in the government hospital . But later , he too crosses the Line to come here . He paints a gruesome picture of caring for the Syrian regime 's soldiers . Fifty a day are brought in , he tells me . Some are so wounded the doctors make a decision , he says , that sounds like it is born of mercy and perhaps rebel sympathies . Those soldiers with the worst , perhaps unsurvivable , injuries are given lethal injections . He tells me : `` If they found out I was working here , they would kill me . '' Slain journalist 's partner tells of grief . Suddenly , a truck arrives outside and little Ahmad is rushed inside . His right ear is hanging on only by a small thread of skin . Shrapnel -- as indiscriminate when it lands as the means by which it is fired -- hit the back of his head . The doctors work to clean the wound , but , as too often is the case , the lights and power fail . He lies there as a doctor with a head torch tries to pull the shrapnel from his head . The anesthetic they gave is not enough to stop him screaming in pain . But this is not the worst that will befall Ahmad . As he lies there , outside in the back of a truck slumps his father Yahya , lifeless , a hole in his chest from the same shrapnel . `` Allahu Akbar '' cry the men around his corpse . `` God is great . '' They leave his body in the sidewalk until his brother arrives . Later his family will quickly drive the body away , so Ahmad can learn of his father 's death at a more dignified time .
Children have been some of the main casualties during the Syrian civil war . Every hour , medical professionals face dilemmas on how to ensure patients can be treated . Syria : Regime soldiers with worst , perhaps unsurvivable , injuries are given lethal injections . Injured children are carried across front line to ensure better care in government hospitals .