Chicago area doctors treated up to 700 patients a day in Gaza during two-week medical mission

Chicago-area doctor shares first-hand account of medical mission in Gaza 05:14

CHICAGO (CBS) — Two Chicago area doctors who helped provide medical care in Gaza just returned from a medical mission where they saw as many as 700 patients per day.

Dr. John Kahler and Dr. Zaher Sahloul, co-founders of MedGlobal, flew to Gaza on Jan. 5 to provide care to those in need amid the war between Israel and Hamas. They returned home on Saturday.

Their team was deployed to three sites in Gaza, and treated 600 to 700 patients per day at a primary health center they set up.

“There was complete chaos, as you can imagine,” he said Monday. “There was no heat, there was no sanitation. So it was a catastrophe. It is a catastrophe. It was, and it’s getting worse.”

Kahler said they had to dodge missile strikes and drone attacks while trying to treat civilians in Gaza, many of them children.

“This is what we do, and this of all things has been probably the most significant humanitarian crisis since World War II,” he said.

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