Among the first patients when I got to Gaza was a two-year-old girl, dead on arrival. There wasn't a mark on her, I just couldn't understand it but the shockwave of a blast had fatally affected her lungs. We laid two chairs in the mortuary for family, but none came. I fear they had been killed too...the image of that wee girl will haunt me forever

Elderslie nurse Mel relives her two months in Gaza which she says is 'hell on earth'

- EXPRESS REPORTER

A Renfrewshire nurse says she is haunted by memories of a dead two-year-old girl rushed to the hospital where she was working in Gaza after a ceasefire collapsed.

Mel Graham has given a shocking first-hand account of life in war-torn Gaza after returning from a two-month deployment to a UK Government-funded emergency field hospital.

The 50-year-old confessed she's never been more frightened in her life as the violence erupted again-but hopes to return to Gaza with frontline medical charity UK-Med as part of the UK Government's humanitarian response to the crisis.

Two emergency field hospitals funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and run by Manchester-based frontline health charity UK-Med have treated more than 400,000 patients in Gaza so far.

Brave Mel, from Elderslie, said: "I was in Gaza last year and didn't think it could possibly get any worse...but it has.

"That first night the ceasefire shattered was easily the worst thing I have ever experienced. Even though we knew it was coming, it was still such a shock.

"The sound of explosions and fighting were so close to the hospital, so we knew we were going to be busy. At maybe two or three in the morning, the first casualties started coming in. It was a conveyor belt of carnage.

"My role involved triaging patients.

"Amongst that first load of patients brought in, there was a two-year-old girl dead on arrival.

"There wasn't a mark on her and I just remember standing there thinking, 'How can this happen?' She looked completely perfect and was just covered in a thick layer of dust.

"It's different when you are dealing with people with visible injuries.