Syrians lose life-saving care as Turkey halts medical visits

Syrians lose life-saving care as Turkey halts medical visits

HALZOUN: Huddled inside a tent in rebel-held northwestern Syria, Umm Khaled says she fears her baby will die unless she gets specialist treatment in neighbouring Turkey for a congenital heart defect. Seriously ill Syrians in the country’s last rebel bastion of Idlib used to be able to access life-saving care across the border. But the main crossing there for medical visits slammed shut after a deadly earthquake ravaged southern Turkey on February 6, prompting Ankara to prioritise its domestic needs.

Born just a week before the disaster, baby Islam needs urgent cardiac surgery, unavailable in Syria’s war-scarred Idlib region where the healthcare system fell into further disarray after the quake. “I watch my daughter suffer and I can’t do anything about it,” said Umm Khaled, showing only her eyes and hands beneath her black niqab. The 27-year-old said her baby was losing weight and her condition worsening. Islam often struggles to breathe, and a doctor has warned that repeated such episodes, which put further strain on her heart, could be deadly without an operation or treatment.

But only cancer patients have been allowed to cross into Turkey after months of waiting — and only since Monday. “When she cries, she turns blue