Dr Chandni Maheshwari, a neuro-anesthesiologist, has just returned from her six-week mission from the city of Al Ramtha in Jordan, close to the South Syrian border where an ongoing civil war has left many critically injured. For the time being, the Jordan government is allowing patients to enter its border with Syria. Doctors Beyond Borders’s clinic in Al Ramtha is able to treat these patients from Syria free of cost.

What began as a peaceful uprising against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad six years ago has now become a full-scale civil war that has left more than 300,000 people dead, devastated the country and drawn in global powers.
The following is an interview of Dr Chandni, post her return from Ramtha.
Q: Where are you from?
Ans: My parents currently live in Agra but I grew up in a very small town called Sikandra Rao and was sent to a boarding school when I was 8-year-old for good education. Since then I have been always away. I studied Medicine at Aligarh Muslim University.
Q: How was the experience working in Ramtha, Jordan? What made you decide to work there?
Ans: I learnt a lot from my experience. It was a good change from the regular work I do. I met new people from different countries.  The kind of injuries and trauma is something you won’t find here in India.
Q: Tell us a little bit more about Ramtha in Jordan where you worked.
Ans: Ramtha is in the north of the country. It is a trading town, close to Syrian border. It is a flourishing town. Some people have really fancy houses. The war, however, has affected the trade. You hear bombings from where I stayed every single day. Some shells (bombs) are dropped in Ramtha, but they do not explode. Once or twice month a shell is spotted. Bombings can be heard very clearly every single day.
Q: How were the patients like? What kind of patients did you treat?
Ans: Most of our patients were young adult males. They were between 20 to 30 years old. Wards are full of amputated patients as well as blind patients.  Unfortunately, many have lost both legs. Some of them have fought in the war. Many of them have severe head injuries. Injuries are also very frequent.  The Treatment period takes about six months in some cases.  Many of the patients are also children. Children who have lost their legs, some of them blind because shrapnel have injured the eye.
Q: Is there some case that caught your attention?
Ans: The phantom pain was something I found interesting and difficult to deal with. It is the sensation of pain in the limb, even when you don’t have a limb. It is not psychological; it is a real pain coming from a non-existent limb. It has to be treated with a drug.  This is done in operation theatre. The drug that we use for affects the sensatory component of the nerve and relieves the pain.
Q: Any particular patient you remember, stuck with you.
Ans:  One very young angry patient, who had lost both his legs was very hard to deal with. He was aggressive and had lost both his legs beyond the knee. He was suffering from severe pain. He used to pick up fights with the staff and behave rudely. Our mental health experts helped counsel him. We have to be very careful in administering drugs to avoid the patient getting addicted to it. 
Q: Do you think you made a difference during your stay there?
Ans: When I reached Ramtha, every single patient was in pain.  Overtime, however, it gradually came down.  We were able to save a lot of patients with severe head injuries. I’m very happy to have helped save their lives.
Q: What do you think about the war?
Ans: So many young people who have become morbid and depressed due to the war. An entire generation has become dependent. The cost of care for these future citizens will only grow up. Many of them cannot work or move. In some cases family relations go bad. Because they are all immobile, they have a lot of non-communicable diseases. (Photos courtesy: Doctors Without Borders)