Gaza Baby Saved at Meyer Hospital, 2-kg Tumour Removed

Florence: A newborn baby brought to Italy from Gaza has been saved at a Florence children’s hospital after a 2-kg tumour was removed from the base of her spine. Born prematurely at the 33rd week, the little girl arrived in Italy from Gaza at the end of September when she was only 10 days old and was admitted to the prestigious Meyer Hospital in the Tuscan capital. She had a very rare tumor, a sacrococcygeal teratoma. Doctors at the Florence pediatric hospital operated on her as soon as her condition allowed, removing a growth weighing approximately 2 kg.

According to Ansa News Agency, the baby, now 28 days old, “is now doing better and continuing her post-operative recovery in Meyer’s neonatal intensive care unit,” Meyer Hospital said in a statement Tuesday. “My daughter is doing better, but as a father, I won’t feel at ease until she leaves the hospital fully recovered,” said Moataz, her father, who is at the Meyer with his wife, Nancy, and their other children, ages 5, 4, and 2.

“The situation was very bad,” he told reporters, “we were under bombardment, there was no let-up. We were always scared, always afraid, moving from one place to another so my wife could give birth. After the birth, I had to look for a safer place, taking my wife away from the hospital where the baby was, to find a safe place away from the bombardment.”

The story of the little girl emerged thanks to a social media post by Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and journalist, and was relaunched in Italy by journalist Mariangela Pira. “I was contacted by the Meyer task force that had organized this transfer,” Meyer Intensive Care Chief Marco Moroni explained, adding that “one of my neonatologists, Dr. Paoli, left for Gaza and welcomed the little girl from there,” where “they came to pick her up by plane.” Today the little girl “is growing and gradually gaining weight and the post-operative wound is healing,” Moroni said.