Scottish nurse 'haunted' by memories of dead child after working in Gaza hospital

A Scottish nurse says she has been left “haunted” by memories of a dead two-year-old girl after working in a Gaza hospital.

Mel Graham, from Elderslie, was deployed for two months to a UK Government-funded emergency field hospital based in Al Mawasi.

The 50-year-old was in the region when the ceasefire between Gaza and Israel collapsed.

She is hoping to return to one of the two emergency field hospitals funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and run by Manchester-based frontline health charity UK-Med, which have treated more than 400,000 patients in Gaza so far.

Mel said: “I was in Gaza last year and didn’t think it could possibly get any worse… but it has.

“That first night the ceasefire shattered was easily the worst thing I have ever experienced. Even though we knew it was coming, it was still such a shock.

Mel Graham was deployed to Gaza for two months. Supplied

“The sound of explosions and fighting were so close to the hospital, so we knew we were going to be busy. At maybe two or three in the morning the first casualties started coming in. It was a conveyor belt of carnage.

“My role involved triaging patients. Amongst that first load of patients brought in, there were was a two-year-old girl dead on arrival.

“There wasn’t a mark on her and I just remember standing there thinking ‘How can this happen?’. She looked completely perfect and was just covered in a thick layer of dust.

“It’s different when you are dealing with people with visible injuries. With some blast injuries there are no obvious signs externally, but the shockwave had fatally affected her tiny wee lungs.

“The porters went to get a body bag for her, but the shortage of aid getting in meant there were only adult body bags available. She just disappeared into it.

“We took her to the temporary mortuary at the back of the hospital. We put two chairs out for the family to come in… but no-one ever came. I fear her parents had obviously been killed too.”

Over 50,000 people have now been killed in Gaza and more than 90% of the population displaced from their home.

The nurse added: “The sight of that little girl will haunt me forever. It is the thing that I think about most. It’s at the forefront of my brain. It is not natural for a child to die like that.

“I didn’t want to leave her there alone, but I had to get back to help the many other casualties who had been rushed in.”

The Glasgow Royal Infirmary ICU nurse had already been deployed to Ukraine twice. Supplied

UK foreign secretary David Lammy has been leading calls for more aid to enter Gaza and urgently wants to see a return to the ceasefire.

In a statement to Parliament last week, he said: “Our message is clear. There is a UN plan ready to deliver aid at scale, needed with mitigations against aid diversion. There are brave humanitarians ready to do their jobs.

“There are 9,000 trucks at the border. Prime Minister Netanyahu: end this blockade now and let the aid in.”

In total the UK has announced £129m last financial year (2024-2025), including £11.5m to support UK-Med’s life-saving work in Gaza.

Glasgow Royal Infirmary ICU nurse Mel, who arrived in Gaza on February 1, had already been deployed twice to Ukraine.

She said: “When I was in Gaza last year, we heard explosions close to us, but this time my heart was in my mouth much of the time.

“Some bomb blasts were so close you’d feel your feet move first and then you heard the explosion. I don’t know what the science is behind that.

“It was just one incident after another. Two of the 14 Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance workers killed had left from our field hospital.

“They were our colleagues.”