My battle to save the victims of Syria's bloody civil war: The retired surgeon who spent five weeks operating in a secret cave under constant fear of rocket attacks

By PAUL MCMASTER

PUBLISHED: 17:23 EST, 12 January 2013 | UPDATED: 11:29 EST, 13 January 2013

For grandfather Paul McMaster, it was a risk worth taking to save lives - even though he would face mortal danger every day.

The retired surgeon, from Worcester, spent five weeks operating on victims of Syria's civil war in makeshift field hospitals in rebel-held territory.

Here Paul, 70, tells of the trauma of working in a war zone.

Risk: Paul McMaster spent five weeks operating on victims of Syria's civil war in rebel-held territoryFrightening: The makeshift hospital in a Syrian cave was 'chaotic, crowded, hot, and hectic', says surgeon Dr Paul McMaster

Risk: Surgeon Paul McMaster spent five weeks operating on victims of Syria's civil war in rebel-held territory

In the cramped confines of our dusty chalk cave, deep in the hilly heartland of north-west Syria, our makeshift field hospital was chaotic, crowded, hot and hectic. And all too often awash with blood.

Helicopters hovered low overhead, firing rockets across the remains of the wrecked buildings where the elderly, along with the women and children who hadn’t fled to the refugee camps, cowered in fear.

I’ve worked in several war zones with the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – Sri Lanka, Ivory Coast and Somalia – and in those countries the danger came from ground forces. But in Syria the threat was from the air. It was a much more oppressive type of danger.

And when the bombs go off, you see the fear on people’s faces. You feel crushed by it. And, to be truthful, very frightened.

Our cave was small – about a third of an Olympic swimming pool in size – and went down by about 15ft. It had a very narrow entrance, then breeze blocks down to the first level.

This was the triage area where we would ascertain who was in most urgent need of treatment.

Most of our casualties were civilians – the elderly, women, children and babies. Many had shrapnel wounds.

Others were fighters – from both sides as MSF is, of course, impartial – with serious gunshot wounds.

After a bombing there was often a great rush of people who would pour into the cave. Two or three would be badly injured, a dozen more might have less serious injuries.

People came in on stretchers made from corrugated sheets or doors, whatever people could find. Everyone had relatives with them and the numbers could get very big.

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They were often immensely distressed and frightened, screaming, covered in blood, not sure if their relatives were alive or dead. There was an extremely chaotic component as the Syrians express themselves with wailing and a lot of crying out, which could be very difficult within the confines of the cave. One of our biggest struggles was to maintain control in this area.

On the next level down we had the portable operating theatre. This is an inflatable tent, a bit like a bouncy castle with an operating table in it. It doesn’t have any windows and is completely enclosed.

We tried very hard to keep it sterile as the surrounding area was, frankly, not. Was it up to the standards of a hospital? Of course not, but we did our best to keep it clean.