When Beirut was blown up on the night of Monday, August 3, photographer Bilal Jawich was at his home on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital. His instinct led him to follow the smoke to the port, the epicentre of the tragedy, and there he found heartbreaking scenes. One of them, that of a nurse saving three newborns at Al Roum hospital, has gone viral.
The photographer explained to CNN that he was “amazed when I saw the nurse carrying three newborns. I noticed her calm, which contrasted with the surrounding atmosphere just a meter away.” At her side, there were dozens of people injured and several dead as a result of the shock wave of the explosion.
Photo by Lebanese photojournalist Bilal Jawich of a nurse at Beirut Roum hospital maternity ward, cradling 3 newborns and calling for help pic.twitter.com/GWopsPi4Tg
— Kareem Shaheen (@kshaheen) August 4, 2020
But, despite the tragedy that was happening around her, Bilal Jawich was able to see something special in the health: “The nurse seemed to have a hidden strength that gave her self-control and the ability to save those children. There are people They stand out amid violent, dark and evil circumstances and this nurse lived up to it.”
A dramatic situation
The photographer was able to speak to the nurse about what happened. His account is further proof of the tragedy that struck Beirut and could have been of even more catastrophic consequences. She was in the maternity ward at the time of the explosion and the shock wave knocked her unconscious. When she regained consciousness, “she found herself carrying these three children.”
The nurse and the three babies were able to survive, but not many other people who were in the hospital at the time of the explosion. Al Roum’s director of emergency situations, George Saad, confirmed that 18 people have died (12 patients, two visitors and four nurses), while two others remain in critical condition.
And as dramatic as these figures is that 80% of the hospital and half of the medical equipment have been damaged and cannot be used with the thousands of injured throughout the city and that all the health centers in the capital have collapsed. from Lebanon. The three rescued children who appear in the photograph, as well as their mothers, were transferred to another hospital and all are in good condition.
