Mayar.. a child exhausted by burns and hindered by waiting for treatment

A human-interest investigation into the suffering of 14-year-old Mayar Barbakh, who has suffered severe burns for nine years, exacerbated by war, displacement, and living in a destroyed home where rodents and insects infest her wounds. She has been waiting for a medical referral to travel for treatment for over a year and a half without success.

A human-interest investigation from Khan Younis recounts the suffering of 14-year-old Mayar Barbakh, who suffered severe burns at the age of five after boiling water spilled on her body. Since then, she has undergone successive surgeries, cosmetic procedures, and skin grafts, but the Israeli war of extermination has compounded her tragedy. Displacement and living in a destroyed home have left her burns prey to rats, ants, and insects that reopen her wounds. Her mother, Sherin Barbakh, says she had arranged to travel abroad for her daughter's treatment, but the war broke out just a week after preparations were made. Mayar's interruption from treatment throughout the years of war has returned her suffering to square one, and doctors were forced to perform an emergency skin graft a week ago. The wild tissue resulting from the burns is widespread across her body. Mayar received a medical referral over a year and a half ago but has not yet traveled due to Israeli restrictions on patient travel from Gaza. Mayar is experiencing severe psychological distress and refuses to go out or attend school. Her sister Dima (10 years old) suffers from cerebral atrophy and quadriplegia, and Maria (8 years old) is deaf and mute. The family appeals to the World Health Organization to intervene.