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WEKU
World
Daniel Estrin

A 70-year-old man in Gaza needed open heart surgery. It was a race against time

Yousef Al-Kurd, 70, a resident of Gaza with heart disease, waits to be seen by Dr. Saher Abu Ghali at Shifa Hospital. Al-Kurd is one of many Gazans who struggle to get permission to leave Gaza for medical treatment. (Fatima Shbair/for NPR)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — What does it take for a 70-year-old man to get heart bypass surgery in Gaza, when he is cordoned off from the rest of the world in a territory with just two heart surgeons left?

It takes jostling through crowds of patients facing their own heath crises. It takes a dire enough medical condition, or political connections, to convince Palestinian officials to spare limited funds to pay for his surgery abroad.

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