As the world debates whether the U.S. air strikes in Syria were effective, a Fort Worth surgeon says some kind of action is necessary to end the violence produced by the country's civil war.
The war that has displaced millions of Syrians.
Dr. Robert Anderson recently returned from the Middle East where he saw the suffering firsthand.
In addition to cosmetic surgery, Anderson performs reconstructive surgery for people with wounds and missing body parts.
He took his skills 7,000 miles away on a surgical mission.
"It's hard to imagine that kind of inhumanity," said Anderson, of the suspected gas attack in Syria.
The images that stunned the entire world shook Anderson to the core.
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"When I see those people who were gassed I think about the faces of the little scared children that we took care of," he said.
In January, the Fort Worth plastic surgeon spent a week in Lebanon with other doctors on a surgical mission.
The trip was made possible by a group of faith-based organizations including LEAP Global Mission.
Together, they treated dozens of Syrian refugees uprooted from their homes and badly injured.
"Little children where bombs have blown up, the cluster bombs have been dropped, and it lights the cooking fuel on fire or you see shrapnel wounds that people have had," he remembered.
He also remembers the desperation in the eyes of many parents.
"They love their children just as much as we love ours, and they just don't have any resources. They have nothing," Anderson said.
When it comes to the suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of Syrians, Anderson hopes people look beyond the numbers.
"Those are living human beings who died and children who never had the chance to live," he said.
Anderson said he would go back to the Middle East to help treat refugees.
The doctor also travels to Guatemala every year to help treat adults and children in need of surgery.
