Four years into Syrian war, doctors struggle to save lives

Four years ago, pro-democracy protests in Syria turned bloody when security forces opened fire. The blood never stopped flowing. And today, as the uprising in Syria marks its fourth anniversary, well over 200,000 people have been killed. 

All too often, the life and death of civilians is decided by whether they can get access to some of the few remaining doctors who continue to work under siege in Syria's rebel-held north. 

"We can't just let them die," Dr. Molham Entabi tells As it Happens host Carol Off. He is one of a network of Syrian ex-pat doctors with a charity called Syria Relief who regularly volunteer at clinics and hospitals, despite the dangers.

Among the patients Entabi has been treating in Syria, he says the children are the most vulnerable. "You can't imagine the psychological trauma they're living in every day...I can't describe it really."

He says the hospital he volunteers at near the border with Turkey has been targeted by the Syrian regime three times in the past 18 months. "I mean what can you do? If things happen, it happens. That's it."

Entabi, who works as an eye doctor in England, says that when he was last volunteering at the Syrian hospital, they were treating 60 patients per day. But more and more, civilians in need of treatment in the area are running out of options. 

Because of the risk, and dwindling financial support, three hospitals have recently shut down, including one that was serving a community of 150-thousand people. "That's why the doctors are actually fleeing the country. They don't have any support left."

"God forbid, probably after one year, there will be no doctors."