A BRISTOL doctor risked her life to spend her summer holiday in war-torn Syria providing medical help to victims of the conflict.
Rachael Craven, 42, usually works as anaesthetist at the Bristol Royal Infirmary.
But she has just returned from two weeks under constant threat of arrest or air strikes treating victims of shelling, shooting and bombing at a secret hospital run by humanitarian aid agency Medicins Sans Frontieres - also known as Doctors Without borders - inside northern Syria.
Dr Craven, of Redland, spent 14 days holed up in a house that had been turned into a hospital.
Existing hospitals in the country have been overwhelmed with casualties and some have also been the target of air strikes. Many injured people have been unable to travel to them because the roads are too dangerous.
The MSF hospital Dr Craven worked in was set up - complete with a makeshift ward and operating theatre - inside a house, with no sign from the outside of the lifesaving work going on within.
With the rooms used for patients, the volunteer medics had to sleep on balconies or the roof, as it was unsafe for them to leave.
Dr Craven said: "I've been working with MSF since 2005 as a volunteer - spending four weeks a year with them.
"This time I got a call asking if I would go out to Syria. If MSF call there's very definitely a need for you to go out there.
"When you get there the work is very rewarding and interesting and you work with a great team of people. It can be a positive thing.
"Seeing the media coverage of the desperate situation out there made me want to go out there. But I was cautious as well.
"I was nervous when I headed out - but once I arrived I felt better and you see the reality of the situation.
"When I told my family they were pretty tolerant. But they tried to persuade me not to go.
"The government out there told us not to go but MSF said we would go anyway.
"You hear stories about doctors being targeted and hospitals being bombed.
"We were holed up in a house the whole time - trying not to be found.
"It's hard because some people have to know (where the hospital is), so that the patients can find you.
"I was aware of the shelling and gunfire going on around us.
"There was one occasion when the government forces were approaching rapidly, closing in on us and we needed to evacuate but we had to commit to stay to operate on a patient.
"The equipment we had was very simple and basic and not high-tech.
"We treated a mix of casualties. Around half were civilians, while the other half were people who had been fighting.
"We had to treat families and children as well.
"It feels very pleasant to be back home, with lots of staff and nice equipment. It feels like luxury."
In 2010 the Post reported that Dr Craven had helped to treat victims of the Haiti earthquake.
She spent almost a month of her leave at a temporary hospital in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, which she helped set up for MSF.
Dr Craven was involved in setting up an operating theatre, intensive care and emergency room, as well as a basic lab.
For more details on MSF, visit www.msf.org.uk
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