Canadian surgeon heading to Syria as country pleads for earthquake aid

Anas Al Kassem leans forward slightly toward his computer screen as the chime of the Skype call fills his home office in Ancaster, Ont.

The surgeon isn't sure he's going to be able to get through to his friend at an orthopedic hospital in Idlib province in earthquake-damaged northwestern Syria.

This time, he's lucky.

"Hello, how are you?" Al Kassem asks.

At the other end, Dr. Sameah Qaddour reveals he and his medical teams have been performing as many as 50 procedures a day and sleeping roughly four hours each night. Even so, they are forced to turn away hundreds of other patients because they don't have the capacity to assess them or provide continuing care.

The hospital where Qaddour is operating was damaged in the quake. Video he shared with CBC News shows visible cracks in the ceilings and places where stones have fallen from the walls.  The staff there doesn't know if the building is safe, but they have little choice but to continue using it.

WATCH | Cracks have appeared in the ceiling of this Syrian hospital:

"They have a significant lack of antibiotics and painkillers and anesthesia drugs," Al Kassem says, translating for Qaddour.

Other videos show patients of all ages in chaotic, crowded hospital wards, some even being treated on the floor. Children can be heard crying and screaming in the background as medical staff frantically move from case to case.

While aid has flowed into Turkey, doctors on the Syrian side of the border told CBC News they haven't seen any help or supplies come their way yet.

Al Kassem is part of a small group of Canadian and American medical personnel that plans to enter Syria later this week and bring relief and supplies though the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations-Canada (UOSSM). The group is also sending along a container of medical supplies from Ottawa, which it hopes to get across the border.

More than 33,000 people died in the earthquake near the Turkey-Syria border on Feb. 6, with more than 5,700 reported dead on the Syrian side, according to Reuters.

Even before the quake, it was difficult to get aid into Syria through its tightly controlled borders.

The area of northwestern Syria hardest hit by the quake is largely rebel-controlled, after years of a brutal civil war with the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.