Lebanese doctor rushes to save eyes after tech devices explode – NBC New York

For nearly a week, ophthalmologist Elias Jaradeh worked around the clock trying to keep up with the flood of patients whose eyes were injured when pagers and walkie-talkies exploded en masse across Lebanon.

He lost track of how many eye surgeries he performed in multiple hospitals, surviving on two hours of sleep before starting the next operation. He managed to save the sight of some patients, but many will never see again.

“There is no doubt that what happened was extremely tragic when you see this overwhelming number of people with eye injuries arriving at the hospital at the same time, mostly young men, but also children and young women,” he told The Associated. Press at a Beirut hospital last week, fighting back tears.

Lebanese hospitals and doctors were flooded after thousands of hand-held devices belonging to the militant group Hezbollah detonated simultaneously on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, killing at least 39 people. An estimated 3,000 others were injured, some with life-changing disabilities. Israel is believed to have been behind the attack, although it has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Although the blasts appear to have targeted Hezbollah fighters, many of the casualties were civilians. And many of those injured in the attack suffered hand, face and eye injuries because the devices received messages just before they detonated, so they were looking at the devices as they exploded.

Authorities did not say how many people lost their eyes.

Veteran and hardened Lebanese eye doctors who have dealt with the aftermath of multiple wars, civil unrest and explosions, said they had never seen anything like it.

Jaradeh, who is also a lawmaker representing southern Lebanon as a reformist, said most of the patients referred to his hospital, which specializes in ophthalmology, were young people who had suffered significant damage to one or both eyes. He said he found plastic and metal shrapnel in some of the eyes.

Four years ago, a powerful explosion hit the port of Beirut, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 6,000. That blast, caused by the detonation of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored unsafely in a port warehouse, blew out windows and doors for miles around and sent cascades of shards of glass pouring into the streets, causing horrific injuries.

Jaradeh also treated people injured in the port explosion, but his experience with those injured by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies was much more intense because of the high volume of people with eye injuries.

“The containment of the shock after the Beirut port explosion lasted, I think, 48 hours, while we have not reached the containment period now,” Jaradeh said.

Jaradeh said he found it difficult to separate his job as a doctor from his emotions in the operating room.

“No matter what they taught you (in medical school) about distancing, I think in a situation like this, it’s very difficult when you see the number of injured. This is related to a war against Lebanon and a war against humanity,” Jaradeh said.

Hezbollah’s leader vowed to maintain daily attacks on Israel.