One evening this June, I found myself on the roof of a bombed-out hospital in Aleppo. It was pitch black because the city’s east side is without electricity. My colleagues and I watched jets fly by, dropping bombs on the outskirts of the besieged region. Exploding rockets could be heard throughout the night.
I’m a pediatrician in Chicago. But this summer, I traveled with two colleagues from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) to Aleppo. There, I saw firsthand the way this war is maiming children emotionally as well as physically. The kids I encountered often struggled with debilitating trauma. Some had stopped eating; others were barely able to communicate.
