The surgeons of Amman who mend what war has broken

Iraqi and Jordanian surgeons at a specialized facility in Amman are performing the slow, precise work of reconstructive surgery for victims of regional conflict. Having completed more than 11,000 interventions, the team provides long-term care that includes complex bone reconstruction and vocational training for patients from Gaza, Yemen, and Syria.

The medical team, composed of six specialists—all Iraqi or Jordanian nationals—operates in a realm of medicine where patience is as vital as the scalpel. Since the facility was established in 2006, it has evolved from a response to the Iraq War into a regional sanctuary for those whose injuries are too complex for the overburdened clinics of their home countries. The wounds treated here are the lingering legacies of modern conflict: blast injuries, intricate shrapnel patterns, and severe burns that require months, sometimes years, of staged interventions.

A significant challenge lies hidden within the patients' bodies. Many arrive with chronic osteomyelitis, bone infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens contracted during emergency surgeries under fire. To combat this, the hospital maintains an on-site microbiology laboratory where staff culture deep bone tissue. Only after an antibiotic stewardship committee has successfully targeted these resistant bacteria can the surgeons begin the work of grafting bone and repairing nerves.

Beyond the sterile environment of the theatre, the hospital functions as a small, quiet village. Because reconstructive bone surgery requires external fixators to remain attached to limbs for months, patients reside in a dedicated network of guesthouses. Here, the process of social reintegration begins before the physical healing is even complete. In one room, patients and their carers learn the art of perfume making; in another, they practice hairdressing, gaining the vocational skills needed to sustain a life once they return to their families.

For the children who have been evacuated from conflict zones, the facility offers more than just medical care. Engineers in a specialized lab use 3D scanners to map facial burn scars, printing custom, transparent masks that apply the exact pressure needed for the skin to heal smoothly. For Marc Schakal and his team, the work is a recognition that while a wound may be inflicted in a second, the restoration of a human being is the labor of a lifetime.