Sherin lives in Duhok, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Sherin was pregnant with her baby girl when, at the sixth month, things went wrong. She was taken to the emergency room to undergo surgery that would thankfully save her child. “They brought me to the hospital, I was bleeding too much. They took me to the operating room… the child was six months old,” she says. “I stayed in the hospital for three days and was unconscious. [...] My situation improved, but I was worried about my child. Doctors told me she was half a kilo.”
Now her health is better. I am very happy, I can carry my baby and see her get better. I still cannot believe it. The first time I saw her… she was the size of my palm!
Healthcare structures in the region have been struggling to cope with the massive increase of patients in need of critical care. Duhok hospital caters to a population of almost 2 million, between Iraqis, Syrian refugees and internally displaced people. “Without this hospital,” says Sherin, “the fate of my daughter was death. Because of our finances, I couldn’t go anywhere else.”
