East Bay emergency room nurse returns home from humanitarian aid mission in Gaza

SAN FRANCISCO — An emergency room and pediatric nurse for Kaiser Permanente East Bay returned to her day job after completing a challenging two-week mission in Gaza.

Sandra Adler's experience in the conflict zone left a profound impact on her, as she reflects on the difficulties and accomplishments of her humanitarian work.

"I feel like what we did was a Band-Aid, but yes, saving lives … It was a tiny drop of what we were able to accomplish while we were there," Adler expressed, highlighting the scale of the healthcare challenges faced during her time in Southern Gaza.

During her mission, Adler and her team attended to more than 150 patients each day, dealing with trauma stabilization, pediatric injuries, and providing essential medical care to those in need. The environment was intense, with Adler describing the constant artillery fire, shelling, and buzzing of drones as a backdrop to their medical efforts.

"We were a trauma stabilization point in Khan Younis, working with a lot of casualty incidents, a lot of pediatric trauma, doing primary medicine, and I also provided manual breast pumps for the newborns and fragile infants, many of whom did not survive," Adler shared, shedding light on the grim realities faced in a conflict zone.

Getting to Gaza was no easy feat. Adler worked with CADUS, a nonprofit aid organization based in Berlin renowned for its work in active conflict zones. The journey involved training in hostile environments in Germany, acquiring medical supplies in Cairo, and a challenging border crossing into Rafah, Gaza.

"We went to Cairo where we got some medical equipment. We brought 32 crates with us of mostly medical supplies and medicines, and then it was about a 10-hour trip getting to the border, crossing the border, and then getting to our home base in Rafah," Adler detailed.

The mission marked Adler's 12th humanitarian deployment, with previous experiences in disaster zones like Syria, Mexico, and Panama. However, she noted that her time in Gaza was the toughest yet, primarily due to the escalating conflict and the constant threat of violence.

"The artillery fire that we heard definitely increased over time, but consistently throughout my time there, we heard shelling: missiles from both sides, bombs, and the constant buzzing of drones, most of them were militarized," Adler remarked. 

Despite the challenges, Adler cherishes the memories of the people she met, including Nana, a little girl who visited her brother daily during medical treatment. However, the hardest part for Adler was leaving her colleagues behind, knowing they were enduring the conflict day after day without the option to leave.