On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) hosted a guest speaker, a local Palestinian-American nurse. The nurse, Lana, who asked for her last name to be omitted for her family’s safety, visited the Gaza Strip as part of a medical mission in January and February of this year.

“Lana displayed parts of her trip, and showed agonizing and heart-wrenching footage from the tragedies happening across the globe,” senior Haya Al-Chaderchi said. “As we sat to listen to her experiences [in Gaza], our hearts warmed on how she has used her platform to spread the unspoken truth in a world full of delusions.”

Lana has always been determined to help others, but her passion for nursing was an unexpected decision that shifted her career from originally being a teacher. Lana’s mother wanted to travel the world and become a nurse, but she never had the chance to, staying home to take care of her five children.

“The thought of nursing is very rewarding and I love to help people,” Lana said. “So, I thought let me surprise her by living out her dreams for her, and who would’ve known, I love it.”

This mission trip to Gaza was mainly inspired by a personal story, as her aunt and uncle were both exiled from their homes in 1967 by the Israeli military. Lana’s aunt was burned from head to toe and her uncle didn’t make it alive. Her aunt was then brought to Switzerland for treatment but was separated from her grandmother, so she didn’t know her whereabouts until an entire year later.

“I feel like I need to give back in the same way my aunt was helped,” Lana said. “I want to help. I feel like I owe it to them.”

When Lana applied to go to Gaza through the non-government organization MedGlobal, she was assigned to be one of the first medics aiding the patients in Gaza, giving her only a few weeks to urgently prepare. In this short period of time, she set up a GoFundMe, raising over $10,000 within 12 hours, allowing her to purchase all of the medical supplies needed for her trip. This situation also led her to request time off from her current job and draft up a will for her son at the risk of Lana not making it back home alive.

“It was scary to think I was signing all of these documents saying that I potentially wouldn’t make it back home to my son,” Lana said. “I haven’t written a will before but I needed to protect him.”

When Lana arrived in Rafah in southern Gaza, she and her medical crew would wake up at seven in the morning to arrive at the Khan Younis hospital and begin dealing with over 400 patients a day. She worked in the wound care clinic, dealing with burns, orthopedic surgeries, amputations, wound debridement cleanings, laceration repairs and extracting shrapnel from wounds.

“It was very tiring, especially in the wound care clinic,” Lana said. “[On my own], I would see about 50 patients a day. There were so many more though, nearly one million displaced people in Rafah.”

Lana had to bring a trauma go bag containing emergency equipment in case of any dangerous risks to her life. The bag carried a change of clothes, protein bars and life-saving medical equipment.

In Gaza, mission workers faced supply shortages, with inadequate amounts of burn cream, tunicates and anesthesia. Another challenge was food shortages, causing mission workers to lose between 10-20 pounds by the end of their stay. On top of that, the experience took a major psychological toll on workers, who had to witness the destruction and displacement of millions of lives.

“I would love to go [back] to Gaza,” Lana said. “But Israel changed the rules and they don’t allow anybody of Palestinian descent to go back in.”

One patient story that stuck out to Lana was when Israel dropped a bomb three blocks away from their marked medical vehicle despite coordinating their trip with Codat. After they arrived at the hospital, a teenager around her son’s age grabbed Lana’s arm, begging for a medical professional to help his mother who was undergoing chest compressions. She knew from the beginning that the mother wouldn’t make it based on her dilated eyes and pale face, but Lana wanted to show the boy that she gave it her all.

“Lana has an incredible ability to show people that there can be hope in hopeless situations and how we can channel our anger and frustration towards helping people in need,” junior Leo Gates said. “The events happening in Gaza right now have had immense emotional impacts on so many people. So being able to harness those feelings of helplessness and grief to bring back some sense of hope for the people of Gaza, and those around the globe who are witnessing these atrocities, is truly something special.”

This experience has reminded Lana of the endless privileges that society has as a whole. It has taught her to be resourceful and less wasteful, taking advantage of everything that she has.

“You have to remain positive for the people. I was putting on my poker face and acting like I was happy,” Lana said. “Sometimes I would try to crack a joke with them, make them smile, or just try to get their mind off of things.”

This story was originally published on The Highlander on November 3, 2024.