Latest news with #premature babies
BBC News
24-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Parents of Scunthorpe intensive care babies get beauty treatments
Free beauty treatments have been offered to parents of premature and unwell babies in intensive care to support them during what is often considered a stressful and worrying Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Scunthorpe General Hospital has been providing the pampering service with help from trainees at the nearby North Lindsey are given treatments, such as hand and arm massages, next to their babies' cot during the mother, whose baby has been in the unit for more than 20 days, said the service had provided some comfort and relaxation during the "worrying time". Corrine Waldron, 34, gave birth to her daughter at 33 weeks. Both mother and baby were admitted to the ward when the pair became "very poorly" with said: "It was a shock and it was very scary to see her with all the little wires on. It's been really, really difficult." Ms Waldron, who has been on the ward for 21 days, said the massages had helped her "relax for two minutes"."You worry all the time so it takes your mind away for a little bit," she Korolova, who is originally from Ukraine, is training to be a beauty therapist and volunteers at the unit. She said the service provided relief to stressed parents who were "holding their babies for a long time". "I know I can help people with their pains, aches. I like helping people," she said. Kerry Grimbleby, a senior staff nurse on NICU, said the sessions had been beneficial for the mental wellbeing of families on the said: "It's a really stressful environment. Parents can often be here for a long time - some stay for a couple of weeks to even months at a time."We thought it would be a really nice idea for them to have some sort of wellbeing sessions while they were here."Officials at the hospital said they hoped to get more students involved in order to increase the range of beauty treatments on offer."We're not just looking after the child, we looking after the family as a whole," added Ms Grimbleby. Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
Japan Times
11-07-2025
- Health
- Japan Times
Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals
Doctors at Gaza's largest hospital say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in single incubators as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign. Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyze hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummeled during 21 months of war. An Israeli military official said around 160,000 liters of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said. "We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director. "Premature babies are now in a very critical condition." The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," said Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health. Palestinian newborns share an incubator at Al-Helou hospital due to fuel crisis, according to medics, amid the Israeli military offensive, in Gaza City on Thursday. | REUTERS The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard," he said. The Israeli military official said such depictions were creating "a false narrative." U.N. bodies working in Gaza decide how to distribute fuel and he did not know if fuel had reached Al Shifa yet, he said. Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than 2 million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centers underneath them, which Hamas denies. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees," with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian who was killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a house, according to medics, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday. | REUTERS Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the U.N. agency. Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. Abu Selmia said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia. "Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil," Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become "a graveyard for those inside." Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 liters of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 liters, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it while introducing a U.S. and Israeli-backed scheme that largely bypasses the U.N. system. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies. "You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility," said James Elder, a spokesperson for U.N. children's agency UNICEF, recently returned from Gaza. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
CNA
10-07-2025
- Health
- CNA
Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals
World Chronic lack of fuel is forcing doctors in Gaza to find ways to save on electricity, including by putting multiple premature babies into one incubator. GAZA: Doctors at Gaza's largest hospital say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in single incubators as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign. Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyse hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummelled during 21 months of war. An Israeli military official said around 160,000 litres of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday (July 10), but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical centre in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said. Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations stand in the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, July 10, 2025. (Photo: AP/Leo Correa) "We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director. "Premature babies are now in a very critical condition." The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters. The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard," he said. The Israeli military official said such depictions were creating "a false narrative." UN bodies working in Gaza decide how to distribute fuel, and he did not know if fuel had reached Al Shifa yet, he said. A Palestinian woman comforts a child as casualties are brought into Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following an Israeli strike, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Jul 10, 2025. (Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed) Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than 2 million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centres underneath them, which Hamas denies. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees", with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency. Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. Abu Selmia said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia. "Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil," Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become "a graveyard for those inside". DR'S PERFORMING SURGERIES WITHOUT ELECTRICITY Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 litres of fuel per day, and it now has only 3,000 litres, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from the staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it while introducing a US and Israeli-backed scheme that largely bypasses the UN system. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies. "You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility," said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children's agency UNICEF recently returned from Gaza. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began after October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all of Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, including from the United Nations.
Khaleej Times
10-07-2025
- Health
- Khaleej Times
Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals
Doctors at Gaza's largest hospital say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in single incubators as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign. Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyse hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummelled during 21 months of war. An Israeli military official said around 160,000 litres of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday, but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa Medical Centre in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said. "We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director. "Premature babies are now in a very critical condition." The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," Dr Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters. The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard", he said. The Israeli military official said such depictions were creating "a false narrative". UN bodies working in Gaza decide how to distribute fuel and he did not know if fuel had reached Al Shifa yet, he said. Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than two million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centres underneath them, which Hamas denies. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees", with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency. Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals. Cogat, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. Oxygen risk Abu Selmia said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia. "Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil," Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become "a graveyard for those inside". Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 litres of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 litres, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it while introducing a US and Israeli-backed scheme that largely bypasses the UN system. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies. "You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility," said James Elder, a spokesperson for UN children's agency Unicef, recently returned from Gaza. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
Reuters
10-07-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals
GAZA, July 10 (Reuters) - Doctors at Gaza's largest hospital say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in single incubators as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign. Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyse hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummelled during 21 months of war. An Israeli military official said around 160,000 litres of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday, but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said. "We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director. "Premature babies are now in a very critical condition." The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters. The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard," he said. The Israeli military official said such depictions were creating "a false narrative." U.N. bodies working in Gaza decide how to distribute fuel and he did not know if fuel had reached Al Shifa yet, he said. Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than 2 million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centres underneath them, which Hamas denies. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees", with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the U.N. agency. Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. Abu Selmia said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia. "Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil," Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become "a graveyard for those inside". Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 litres of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 litres, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it while introducing a U.S. and Israeli-backed scheme that largely bypasses the U.N. system. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies. "You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility," said James Elder, a spokesperson for U.N. children's agency UNICEF, recently returned from Gaza. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
