Keteer

Her husband is an exceedingly good man.

 (A Lot)

A while back a friend asked if the “Mish Mumkin” story was a true story. That exact story was not, but I took events that have occurred and applied them to a western setting to be more understandable to us.

Here is a real story, told to me by the mother, as we sat sipping tea on the the floor of her tent. We'll call her Noora (Light).

It was a joyous day for she and her husband. They were at their hospital in Syria and Noora was undergoing a cesarean section for the birth of their son. The doctor had made an incision across her belly when an alarm sounded. Planes were coming to bomb the hospital.

Evacuations began and chaos mounted as everyone clamored to run, wheel, or crutch their way out of the building. The doctors and nurses around the operating table took no time to think, only to survive. They turned and fled, leaving only the clatter of their fallen instruments on the floor.

Noora lay open on the table, her baby halfway born.

Her husband pleaded, yelled, and grasped desperately at the tails of the doctors' coats, but no one would stay and help. Frenzied, he ran through the quickly emptying hospital, pounding on doors, entreating anyone to help him. Finally he was able to grab hold of a nurse and refused to let go. She didn't know how do surgery, but she was the only option.

The nurse, undoubtedly terrified, delivered the baby, then sewed Noora back up, there in the silent operating room waiting for the bombs to drop. 

What would it feel like to hold your baby for the first time and to know that in minutes, maybe seconds, you will all die?

Somehow, miraculously, the powers that be found out the hospital had been emptied and so called off the airstrike.

They were to live. However, despite the nurse's best efforts, Noora developed a horrible infection from the procedure. She underwent another surgery and they fled the country. Months later, their son is sickly and wane from the trauma. They constantly worry about his health.

Ten days after the birth of their son, the planes came back. The hospital was evacuated, but 25 babies were left in their incubators amid the confusion. They were all killed.

It is so hard to write this. Maybe it's better if I don't tell you the real stories.

(This is only one of this family's stories.)