“Gaza: Mother saves daughter without improvised device”

Under Israeli siege and with destroyed hospitals, a mother’s despair leads to makeshift treatment for asthma

After the doctors narrowly saved Maram Mana’s daughter from a life -threatening asthma attack, she begged for proper treatment to prevent attacks from returning.

The Palestinian mother of three eagerly waited with her daughter in a campaign hospital in downtown Gaza.

When the doctor finally returned, he was holding a plastic bottle of water.

She had been transformed into a makeshift spacer, connected to a too strong inhaler for a child of that age.

“It’s all we have,” he told her.

With Israel blocking the entry of all goods and help, including medical supplies, in Gaza for more than two months, doctors are now resorting to desperate alternatives to clinically approved devices.

Manaa says her daughter, Mayan, three, has been fighting asthma for almost two years. However, his condition “worsened dramatically” since the beginning of the war in October 2023.

“At first, it was hard to move her,” the 33-year-old told Middle East Eye.

She maintained contact with her daughter’s doctor at Al-Nasr Hospital in the city of Gaza, but arriving at the hospital became impossible.

“We lived in the central area, and the separation between the north and south caused me not to take it there.”

The makeshift spacer’s given to Maram Manaa’s daughter, Mayan, while medical supplies are scarce in the war -devastated Gaza track, under Israeli siege | Personal file

About a week after the war in Gaza, the Israeli army issued their first expulsion orders, telling the residents of the city of Gaza and northern Gaza to go to the south of the Gaza Valley.

Weeks later, he completely isolated the north and began to attack anyone who tried to cross through the south or center.

This has left numerous patients isolated from their doctors, hospitals and any chance of proper treatment.

“I feel powerless”

During one of Mayan’s asthma attacks, she began to lose consciousness and began to foam her mouth, according to her mother.

“I had to take her hurried to the nearest hospital. We arrived at the last minute, just in time she was put in the fan,” she recalled.

Mayan used to resort to the nebulizers of Ventolin, but as his condition worsened, treatment became nothing more than a temporary solution.

“As a mother, I feel powerless amid the difficulties of war, because I have no options other than nebulizers, antibiotics and temporary painkillers,” said Manaa.

“Even the antibiotics and nebulizers who used to help her now barely work. Her state only gets worse.”

Even after the January ceasefire, when Israeli forces withdrew from the Netzarim corridor and briefly reopened the movement between the north and south of Gaza, Mana has not yet managed to take his daughter back to Al-Nasr Hospital in the city of Gaza.

The hospital had been invaded and bombarded by Israeli forces. It was no longer operational.

Gaza’s health system has been devastated: bombarded hospitals, attacked medical teams and essential supplies cut by a prolonged Israeli blockade.

Until April, 27 hospitals in the Gaza Strip were forced to close due to the relentless Israeli bombing, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The blockade left empty shelves.

At least 40% of essential medicines and 60% of medical supplies are out of stock.

Hand -to -hand

Desperate for a solution, Manaa recently resorted to the American Campaign Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, in downtown Gaza, hoping to find proper treatment for the worsening of her daughter’s health.

“They gave her asthma medications for a different age group, simply because there was no alternative,” she said.

When she ordered a spacer, the doctor returned with a handmade, made of a plastic bottle of water.

I was shocked. I asked, ‘What is this?’ When they told me it was a replacement for the royal device, I wished the floor opened and swallow me.

“My daughter, who has asthma, needs to breathe through a bottle to stay alive. Where are our rights as human beings? Where is this child’s right to treatment and security?”

Manaa requested medical referral to continue the treatment of her daughter abroad.

But with an overwhelming number of patients and wounded considered “more urgent” than Mayan, doctors could not add it to the long list of medical evacuation.

“They told me that her state is considered stable, compared to tens of thousands of other people who are waiting for permission to travel,” he added.

According to the medical magazine The Lancet, for each direct death caused by military attacks in Gaza, there will be about four indirect deaths resulting from hunger, disease and collapse of health services.

So far, Israeli forces have directly killed more than 52,500 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 15,000 children, and injured 118,000 more, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

‘Missing air’

Mayan is Jouan’s twin sister, who, although healthy, always stops playing when Mayan has an asthma crisis.

She instinctively sits next to her sister, watching her fight to breathe, and refuses to resume her games until the episode passes.

“When Mayan is sick, she can’t play or move, even the slightest effort leaves her breathless,” said Mana.

Jouan tries to comfort his sister with hugs and kisses, added the mother. She understands that Mayan is not well and is often thrilled to see her suffering.

Jouan and Mayan twin sisters | Personal file

“I’m sad for both,” explained Manaa.

“Childhood should not be so. What a mother or father would bear to see the children like this, panting, without stopping, unable to contain themselves?”

To avoid attacks, Manaa applies a nebulizer to the daughter every 15 minutes.

“Mayan chokes and I have to give her this nebulizer, sometimes up to every 10 minutes,” she said.

“This is dangerous for her heart, it’s too much for her small body.

“But there is nothing more I can do.”

Originally published by Mee on 05/05/2025

By Maha Hussainina – City of Gaza, Palestine Occupied