This Is Actually Happening – Episode 382

"What if you spent four months as a doctor in Gaza?"

Host: Wit Misseldine
Guest: Dr. Travis Milline
Date: November 4, 2025

Overview

This riveting episode centers on Dr. Travis Milline’s raw, unfiltered account of serving as a physician in Gaza during two intense humanitarian aid missions amid ongoing war. Travis recounts not only the medical and logistical challenges he encountered but also the profound psychological, moral, and emotional toll of operating under siege. The episode provides powerful testimony about the lived realities of Gaza’s ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, the gap between Western media narratives and ground truth, and the struggle to process trauma and advocate for change after returning home.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Life & Path to Medicine

• Travis grew up in rural Wisconsin, with globally-minded parents who took him as a teen to Israel and the West Bank—experiences that made a strong impression about disparity and militarization.
• His medical path included becoming a paramedic, emergency medicine rotations, and then specializing in anesthesia and intensive care.
• Personal hardships, including a sudden divorce and the suicide of a partner, contributed to his evolution as a doctor and his drive to reach out for support and meaning in his work.

  "One of the things that changed in me is learning that it’s okay to reach for support, to ask your friends for help, but it really feels like no one can understand that, is what it feels like at the time." (12:16)

2. Humanitarian Experiences Before Gaza

• Early international contracts (Honduras, India, Curacao, Nigeria) revealed both the best and the worst in international aid work. Travis describes encountering both skilled professionals and those with “white savior complexes” or even outright dangerous actors.

  "Who happens to be available to do a long contract like that on very short notice? ... A hodgepodge of the worst people ever and some really excellent folks who just happen to be free." (14:45)

• Stressed the importance of arriving with humility, integrating with local teams, and understanding true needs rather than imposing outside expertise.

3. Entering Gaza: The Logistics and Shifting Realities

• In early 2024, Travis’s first Gaza mission with Medglobal was delayed when the Rafah crossing was bombed, marking a turning point:
  • Logistics shifted, making it extremely difficult to bring in supplies, and later, only small personal bags could be brought in.
  • Initial adjustment to the magnitude of bombings and devastation once crossing into Gaza.

  "Every building is bombed out. People are all walking, there’s the rattle of gunfire in the distance ... within 20 or 30 minutes, you’re just adjusted ... You just kind of immediately adjust to this as a new normal." (16:37)

4. Working in Gaza’s Hospitals: Chaos and Carnage

• His team was integrated into local ERs due to the constant threat—no clear “front lines” to safely set up field hospitals.
• Hospitals, far over capacity, were packed with hundreds of displaced people and patients crowded everywhere—even in hallways and stairwells.
• Mass casualty events occurred constantly, often caused by bombings; overwhelmed systems led to heart-wrenching triage, minimal sterility, and immense suffering.

Striking Moment:

"You have 50-bed hospitals already overrun, and then all of a sudden you’re going to add 700 more acute patients ... explosive injuries ... people might be peppered with hundreds of pieces of shrapnel ... It’s a really indescribable scene ... every square inch is covered in blood." (20:45)

• The “Nuserat massacre” incident is contrasted with Western news narratives (hostage rescue) and the grim on-the-ground reality (hundreds dead, most victims civilians including children).
• Frequent, graphic accounts of shattered bodies, burnt babies, children and adults with catastrophic injuries, and the impossibility of keeping up with medical needs.

  "First patient ... was a 10 or 11-year-old girl ... missing her jaw ... Had to stand her in the corner between two dead men and tell the ENT surgeon ‘here’s your first patient.’" (23:23)

5. Evacuations, Medevac Missions, and IDF Encounters

• Ambulance evacuations were hindered by Israeli military controls, intimidation, and sometimes violence.

• Describes soldiers pointing weapons, convoys being rammed or shot at, and weeks-long pre-approval processes that still ended in acts designed for maximum fear and delay.

  "The soldier ... pulled his rifle up ... pointed at my head and just held it ... for five minutes ... just tons of intimidation and a miserable representation of humans." (33:22)

• The emotional impact of seeing every local colleague with family tragedy, and the extraordinary clinical skill and resilience of local medical staff and students:

  "Even a young medical student has probably put in more chest tubes than a trauma fellow ... just the level of competence and skill is very impressive." (36:05)

6. The Descent Into Starvation and Targeted Gunfire (Second Mission)

• By Summer 2025, entry for humanitarian staff was further restricted; food, medical supplies, and basic necessities were blockaded, causing widespread starvation.

• Mass casualties from targeted sniper fire at aid distribution sites became common—adults and children shot in the head or groin, often while seeking food.

  "This wasn’t anyone just targeting adult men ... on some days it was predominantly headshots, other days gunshot wounds to the scrotum ... even down to two-and-a-half-year-olds shot in the head." (42:18)

• The impossibility of adequate surgical care:

  "You don't have the right antibiotics, no protein in the market ... the number of post-op complications is immense ... you have a scalpel but all the other things that make surgery safe don't really exist." (43:50)

7. Being a Witness: Advocacy and Frustrations After Return

• After each mission, Travis describes severe PTSD—loud noises triggering panic, intrusive memories, depressive and moral injury from being unable to deliver acceptable care.

  "I stupidly believed I wouldn’t get PTSD—that somehow it was a choice ... but I do need to work on this and figure out how to deal with this before I return to regular work." (39:35)

• Acute sense of loss and survivor’s guilt; especially upon learning, after leaving, that the hospital was directly attacked minutes after his group departed, and several friends/colleagues were injured or killed.

  "It very much felt like they were just waiting for us to step away ... and then went ahead and attacked it." (45:16)

• Challenges in sharing his experience and advocating for Palestinian victims at home, amid hospital administration unwillingness to platform his testimony, and broader societal silence:

  "When you're there you feel like you have lots of important roles ... you return to the US and it's very hard to kind of figure out a way to have an impact ... silence as complicity, silence as something that's directly causing harm now." (51:30)

8. Reflections on Human Nature, Propaganda, and Hope

• His worldview is dramatically altered after seeing “en masse” dehumanization and targeted killings of civilians—especially children.

  "Two years ago, I wouldn't have thought that person existed in the world. But to see it happening en masse ... it’s eye-opening ... this experience makes me feel like there's a lot more wickedness that exists in the world than we acknowledge." (53:40)

• Firsthand accounts contradict the narrative of “Hamas in hospitals,” stating unequivocally that he never saw evidence of armed militants inside.

  "If you talked to the vast majority of all healthcare workers who have been there, did you see any evidence of Hamas in the hospitals, the universal answer is no." (49:21)

• On the fragile hope for ceasefire and reconstruction:

  "As far as a ceasefire goes, it's kind of just scaled back the attacks, scaled back the starvation a little bit ... The hope is that reconstruction equipment is allowed in ... get a free flow of aid back in. But … I’m pretty guarded that any of those things will appreciably change." (60:22)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There is nowhere that's safe. So you just go back to work.” (03:00, 21:55)
  Travis’ chilling explanation of how quickly life in a bombing zone becomes “normal,” and that care for others must override the instinct to run.

• “You just immediately adjust. You're not flinching from a pressure wave … this is your new normal.” (16:37)
  On rapid psychological adaptation in a war zone.

• “It was this horrific massacre of children, women, men … half kids. Anytime you have a mass casualty it’s about half children.” (22:50)
  The human cost behind sanitized news reports.

• “After coming back … lots of PTSD … what I’d say about this is for the first year, because of how severe and horrific the images and injuries … yes, very traumatic.” (49:00)

• “You feel like you have important roles when you’re there … you come home and it’s hard to have an impact. Silence feels like complicity.” (51:30)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:18–13:30] – Early life, family, and medical school experiences.
• [13:30–18:30] – Early international medical experiences; motivations for humanitarian work.
• [19:30–27:00] – Crossing into Gaza, adjusting to daily bombings, begins work in the ER.
• [27:00–36:00] – Chaos in the hospitals, mass casualty events, stories of treating children and civilian injuries.
• [36:00–43:00] – Ambulance evacuations, encounters with the IDF, the pain of connecting with local staff suffering personal losses.
• [43:00–48:30] – Transition to the second mission: starvation, sniping at food aid sites, and evolving medical/moral challenges.
• [48:30–53:30] – Attack on the hospital after Travis’ departure, reflections on intentional targeting, survivor’s guilt, and PTSD.
• [53:30–60:00] – Oncoming ceasefire, hopes for peace, doubts about substantive change, ongoing need for advocacy.

Conclusion

Dr. Travis Milline’s story is a harrowing yet deeply compassionate window into Gaza’s humanitarian disaster and its effect on those sent to help. His testimony illuminates both the courage required to serve amid ceaseless violence and deprivation, and the lasting, sometimes crippling, wounds—psychological and moral—carried by those who bear witness. Through frank, emotionally charged accounts and sharp critique of Western silence, Travis calls listeners to face uncomfortable truths and question official narratives, highlighting the vital importance of bearing witness and refusing complicity through silence.