Your trusted source

Two newborn Syrian refugee babies died from cold over the weekend on the rugged outskirts of the Lebanese border town of Arsal, where thousands of Syrians are living in unheated tents in freezing temperatures, medical sources told The Daily Star Monday.

A 3-day-old girl, identified as the daughter of Syrian refugee Diab Karkour, died Sunday from pneumonia in a field hospital in Arsal, after spending two days in an incubator.

“The baby was born in a tent in the vicinity of Arsal without proper medical attention and in cold weather, contracting pneumonia and inflammation around the navel,” said Dr. Kassem al-Zein, a Syrian doctor at Arsal’s field hospital.

Zein said the field hospital lacked the necessary equipment to treat such a severe case and that he wanted to transfer the girl to a proper hospital in the Bekaa, but she died before her parents could reach her.

“The parents could not arrive in time to accompany her to the Bekaa hospital,” he said, citing the low temperatures and lack of medical care as the reasons for her death.

In a similar incident Saturday, another baby girl, born to a Syrian couple, arrived in Arsal’s al-Rahma hospital after having died from the freezing weather, the hospital’s director, Dr. Bassem al-Fares told the Daily Star.

The second victim, Fatima al-Halouchi, was born less than 48 hours earlier, Fares said.

The two deaths occurred as Lebanon witnessed a weekend rain and snow storm that cut off roads in the mountains.