This summer, when wildfires swept through the forests of Latakia, ambulance teams from Idlib were called in to support the emergency response. Paramedics rushed into smoke-filled hillsides where fire crews struggled to breathe. Among them was Mohammed Al Shahad, a father of three from Idlib, who recalls carrying a civil defense worker with severe burns and respiratory distress into his ambulance.
“We gave him fluids, oxygen, and urgent care before rushing him to Latakia National Hospital. That intervention saved his life, allowing him to return to his children and family. I will never forget that moment, knowing we had given him and his loved ones hope again,” Mohammed says.
For Mohammed and his colleague Bashar Al Ali, every day begins and ends in uncertainty. Bashar, from rural Idlib, joined the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) ambulance system in 2020 out of a sense of duty. “One moment I may be sitting quietly with my colleagues, and the next we receive an urgent call. Within seconds, we must be in the vehicle, preparing our equipment and rushing towards the patient. Even a single minute can mean the difference between life and death.”
Both paramedics describe relentless challenges: navigating damaged or blocked roads, stabilizing patients with life-threatening trauma, and, until December last year, working under the constant threat of airstrikes. For Bashar, what keeps him going is the gratitude he sees in families’ eyes when their loved one makes it safely to hospital. “Ambulances here are not a luxury – they are the difference between life and death.”
