GARLASCO. “In the eyes of the children who disembarked yesterday from the Vulcano ship, I saw the terror, the fear of war. Let’s hope that the ceasefire arrives soon, in that case I am ready to go to Gaza to contribute.” Ahmad Saleh, a 71-year-old resuscitation doctor at the 118 emergency service in Pavia and recently retired, was on Monday in the medical staff that welcomed 18 Palestinian children treated on the Italian hospital ship “Vulcano” that docked at the port of La Spezia. A matter of heart for Saleh, originally from Palestine “a land tormented by bombs at the moment – explains Saleh, who lives in Garlasco -. Not just Gaza, but also the occupied territories. We all want a ceasefire. My niece’s husband is right in the occupied territories. When they asked me if I could go to the port to welcome the children, I immediately said yes.” The doctor, who has worked on ambulances and in emergency rooms in the province of Pavia for years, on Monday took care of the medical support for the children destined for the Buzzi hospital in Milan. During his long career in the province of Pavia, the doctor from Garlasco in Italy since 1973, he made headlines for a long series of emergency deliveries on ambulances: so much so that he earned the nickname “Doctor Stork”. Saleh, an Italian citizen since 2011, also during the peak of Covid had been hospitalized for a long time in serious condition: then he gradually recovered. The docking of the ship On Monday morning there was the docking of the ship in La Spezia, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was also present. On the military navy hospital ship, a baby girl, Ilin, was also born on December 22nd. In total, there were 18 children and 44 adult caregivers on board, welcomed at the Garibaldi pier by Red Cross ambulances for first aid. After disembarking, the young patients were transferred to the Rizzoli hospitals in Bologna, Meyer in Florence, Gaslini in Genoa, and Bambino Gesù in Rome. Four of them also arrived at the Vittore Buzzi hospital in Milan: they are two siblings, a 9-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, and a 6-year-old girl, the latter, in addition to her mother, accompanied by two younger sisters (who do not require treatment) and a 53-year-old grandmother, transferred to the Pini Orthopedic Institute for a fracture. Ahmad Saleh, the doctor of Palestinian origin who accompanied the children and their mothers on the journey from La Spezia to Milan, collected their stories. The arrival of Palestinian children in La Spezia on the Italian navy hospital ship “Vulcano” The story of Saleh “They are all originally from Gaza and have wounds or psychological traumas due to the conflict. They told me about the war, about constantly moving from one side to the other, further and further south, to the border with Egypt, because no place was safe,” explained Dr. Saleh. “Some of them left the rest of their family there and there are those who have lost their parents, like the two siblings who arrived here at Buzzi, left without a father due to the bombings, so much so that the mother expressed the intention of seeking political asylum in Italy after the treatment.” The doctor from Garlasco of Palestinian origin then visited the children and their mothers and accompanied them to Buzzi in Milan: “The mothers who arrived are young women, one of them said she was 29 years old,” Saleh added. “During the journey to Buzzi, the children ate. These families have lived 3 months away from home, without spare clothes, without drinking water, without being able to eat, without electricity, without a place to go to the bathroom, without someone to collect the garbage. Perhaps no one thinks about these practical and seemingly banal aspects that are part of the daily routine of anyone. These people are trying to survive infections and diseases. I also think about the children born in these months, none of them are vaccinated.” After the docking of the Vulcano ship, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto explained that “the tireless work of Defense in favor of those in need does not end here. In the coming days, with a special flight of the Italian Air Force, other Palestinian children will be transferred to Italy from Egypt”.
