Retired Asheville doctor aids hundreds amid escalating violence in southern Gaza

By Neydja Petithomme

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Dr. Michael Grady is back home in Asheville after spending nearly five weeks in southern Gaza, aiding hundreds of wounded people.

Grady, a retired OB-GYN, is now with the International Medical Corps and has provided medical care in Ukraine and Turkey.

Between mid-January and mid-February, Grady was stationed in Rafah, where he spent a lot of his time in the emergency department.

He said the number of people who showed up grew by the hundreds daily, and many were traveling from northern Gaza, trying to escape the violence.

“Within days of opening, we were seeing two to three hundred patients in a day. Then a few days after that, we were seeing four, five, six hundred patients a day,” Grady said, recalling his experience on the frontline. “All these people were living outside on the streets. Intense. As you drove along, you would see just tents lined up from one end of the road to the other.”

“There were times there were 30 or 40 patients who would come in at one time from some sort of mass casualty event. Typically, it was an explosion that occurred from a missile or a tank or a building would collapse or some structure would collapse. You can hear constant shelling, whether it was rifle fire or tank fire or a missile fire. If some missile was on the wrong direction and some explosion accidentally happened, that was really the risk,” he explained.

Grady and others from the organization were often in a state of emergency. Grady said they found themselves performing medical procedures in unusual conditions.

“So, suddenly, we’re doing surgeries inside of tents or these trucking containers that were converted to operating rooms, which was then located inside these tents,” Grady said.

Grady said he hasn’t unpacked, and, although he is away from the danger and harsh conditions, he is proud to have done his part.

“The biggest takeaway for me is knowing that we are connected to others through our own humanity,” he said.

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