Syria: Doctors warn of refeeding syndrome and infections in released prisoners
Doctors from Syria who work for the NHS have told The BMJ about “Holocaust-like” scenes that have unfolded at the liberated Saydnaya military prison 18 miles north of the Syrian capital, Damascus, after the fall of the country’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad. On 8 December teams including the Syrian led humanitarian volunteer organisation the White Helmets and the Independent Doctors Association (IDA), a medical non-governmental organisation serving Syria from a base in Gaziantep, Turkey, entered the 40 000 prisoner capacity compound.1 The IDA’s director, Mahmoud Mustafa, who was among the doctors who entered Saydnaya, described the scenes inside the liberated prison as “unimaginably tragic.” Speaking from Damascus on 11 December, he told The BMJ that male and female prisoners had been found malnourished, with evidence of torture including removed fingernails, burn marks, and in one case a removed eye. Children also emerged from the notorious military prison, which was secured by rebels un
