Turkish businessman donates equipment to medical faculty in Idlib, Syria

By Gokhan Ergocun

IDLIB, Syria (AA) - A Turkish businessman who liquidated a hospital in eastern province Van, donated all of the medical equipment to Idlib University Hospital.

Patient beds, surgical kits, operating tables and stretchers were delivered to the faculty.

Millions of residents live in Idlib with limited medical services in the region.

The faculty has hundreds of medical students at all levels and an academic team in many professions.

- Helping hand

"We knew the Idlib faculty requires medical equipment and we also had a liquidated hospital, together with my partner, we decided to donate the equipment of our hospital," said donor Zulfikar Cabbaroglu.

With the help of Turkish associations Ozgur-Der, Fetihder and the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), all the equipment was delivered.

"We have provided many devices such as patient beds, mammography devices, gynecology units and operating room equipment," he said.

The financial value is not important. The important thing is to be able to give needy people a helping hand, said Cabbaroglu.

"I also participated in different works such as houses and food aid for needy people in Idlib before, but the hospital work was more important because it required a serious financial burden of 5 - 6 million liras ($650,000)," he said. "From now on, we will do our best to heal the wounds in Idlib.”

- Several devices

"We visited Idlib University Hospital in the last Ramadan [May] and we saw it requires several types of medical equipment," said Dr. Murat Koc. "We talked to the people for meeting requirements and Cabbaroglu contacted us about donating the materials in his hospital.”

Among the materials are operating tables, gynecology units, halogen lamps, gas systems, patient beds, rustproof equipment, surgical kits, stretchers, mammography and scopy devices, computers, power supplies, printers, kitchen and cleaning equipment, Koc said.

The materials were delivered on seven trucks from Van to Idlib, he added.

Touching on the faculty's situation, Koc said the faculty trains doctors and provides services to 4 million people in Idlib.

The faculty requires medical equipment and drugs, especially anesthetic and basic medical imaging devices.​​​​​​​