Malnutrition spreads in Gaza, says UN: How a 16-year-old is fighting to stay alive

(DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza) — Bashayer Al-Abeed is 16 years old and has been hospitalized in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, for four months. In March, a bombing destroyed her home, killed her entire family except for her aunt, and changed Bashayer’s life forever.

When Al-Abeed first arrived at the hospital, she had a severe head injury and a brain hemorrhage, and was admitted comatose and in critical condition, her doctor, Dr. Hisham Muhammad Abu Hadda, consultant neurosurgeon at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, told ABC News earlier this month.

“She was on a ventilator, paralyzed and in a complete coma. Her condition was extremely critical and she was being treated in intensive care,” Abu Hadda said.

Because she has spent so much time in the hospital, and because of the shortage of the necessary food, Al-Abeed now suffers from acute malnutrition, in addition to recovering from her other injuries, according to her doctor.

“The hospital always seeks to provide food and medicine, especially for children. There is an acute shortage of nutrients, especially foodstuffs that contain vitamins, minerals, and nutritional components that the patient needs, especially neurological patients,” Abu Hadda told ABC News.

Malnutrition is spreading throughout Gaza, according to humanitarian organizations, as food and critical nutrients remain scarce. Sixty cases of malnutrition have been reported in northern Gaza, which has been largely cut off from receiving humanitarian assistance for months, World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said earlier this month.

According to a group of independent experts at the United Nations, famine has spread throughout all of Gaza.

Three children recently died in Gaza from malnutrition, the experts reported: a 6-month-old on May 30, a 13-year-old on June 1, and a 9-year-old on June 3.

“When the first child dies from malnutrition and dehydration, it becomes irrefutable that famine has taken hold,” the experts said.

The Israeli government denies that conditions causing malnutrition exist inside Gaza and says it works with international organizations to ensure necessary aid crosses the border into Gaza from Israel.

Al-Abeed was first hospitalized and put in intensive care after the attack on her family home on March 3 and spent nearly seven weeks in intensive care, her aunt, Yousra Ahmed Al-Abeed, told ABC News. The girl’s mother, father, two brothers, sister, sister-in-law, and her nephew were killed in the bombing, Yousra Ahmed Al-Abeed said.

“We arrived at the hospital and found her unconscious. She entered intensive care and spent 47 days, and during this period in care, after examinations and photographs, it was found that she was suffering from a brain hemorrhage, which led to her being quadriplegic,” her aunt said.

After being discharged from critical care, it became clear that the 16-year-old was also malnourished, her aunt said.

“She became very emaciated. She couldn’t help herself move. Sometimes she needed two people to help her,” Yousra Ahmed Al-Abeed said. “She can’t even turn her head. If you help her sleep on her back, she will stay in that position.”

Yousra Ahmed Al-Abeed takes care of her niece and stays with her at the hospital every day, she told ABC News. For those first 47 days, her niece was being fed a liquid diet through tubes. Now, her diet still only consists of liquid, but she is getting some additional nutrients, her aunt said.

“Everything she eats is liquid. How do fluids benefit a sick person? To this day, she has been living on liquids,” Yousra Ahmed Al-Abeed said.

Bashayer Al-Abeed’s aunt hopes that people outside of Gaza look at her niece’s story and have “compassion and mercy” for children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza.

“My wish for Bashayer and all the malnourished children is to live their lives and return to how they were,” Yousra Ahmed Al-Abeed said, adding, “My message to the world: Just as you want your children to live happily and without deprivation, we also wish for our children to live without deprivation.”