After days trapped in Rafah, Portland nurse finally returns home

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For Portland nurse Monica Johnston, returning to the United States after being trapped in the Gaza Strip felt bittersweet.

Johnston, a 44-year-old burn specialist, traveled to the besieged city of Rafah on a volunteer medical mission May 1 to treat patients in the city's largest remaining hospital. She was set to return home Monday but couldn't leave after Israeli forces seized the nearby border crossing. Her arrival Saturday at Portland International Airport came after the Israeli government agreed to let Johnston and four other American members of her 19-person team evacuate.

While she's home safe and back in the arms of her family, she said she can't help but think of the people she had to leave behind at European General Hospital, where dwindling supplies have made conditions grim for patients.

"Our team is skeletal there so you know (they) can't cover the whole hospital," she said. "It's heartbreaking to have to walk away from that."

After an over 24-hour journey that began on Friday, Johnston embraced her family at 11 p.m. in the arrivals section of PDX with tears in her eyes.

Her two children, 16-year-old Bella Johnston and 14-year-old Gavin Johnston, partner Brad Allan and his 14-year-old son Caius Allen had anxiously awaited news of her evacuation.

Nurses from the burn unit where she works in Portland were also there to greet her, bearing a sign that read, "Welcome home Monica."

"I'm just excited to come back to my work and keep helping," she said as she hugged her coworkers.

Ghada Abukuwaik (left) and Monica Johnston (right) work to treat a 7-year-old with extensive burns. Johnston had to wear an IV cannula for several days while treating patients in order to receive IV fluids to treat dehydration caused by gastroenteritis that she and several team members experienced during their mission.Courtesy of Monica Johnston

Her trip home proved arduous.

She and the four other Americans first traveled to the Kerem Shalom border crossing in transport trucks that had to be pushed to start because the batteries were dead.

Although the distance between the hospital and the crossing was about 60 miles by Johnston's estimation, it took them eight hours to traverse the war zone, she said.

When they reached the crossing, they received a less than warm welcome.

"As we pulled up (at the checkpoint) a tank came out and faced us with its barrel pointing right at us," she said. "(I) was like 'OK, It's going to happen here.'"

After an hour, the tank pulled back and let them pass to safety, where Brad Allan said officials from the U.S. Embassy picked them up before Johnston booked a flight from Tel Aviv.

For Johnston's family, the wait between May 7 and Saturday was a tense one.

"She's like the doorknob on the door," said Gavin Johnston. "I don't know what I would do if she wasn't in my life. Every day would be worse and worse without her."

Caius Allen had a similar experience. "I was stressed and terrified," he said.

All of them were nervous about her taking the mission in the first place.

For Brad Allan, Johnston's safe return marks the end of days of worry and checking the news.

"I am super excited, I'm super relieved," he said. "It's been a lot of sleepless nights for the last almost three weeks."

— Tanner Todd covers crime and public safety. Reach them at ttodd@oregonian.com, or 503-221-4313.

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