Khaled did not expect that August 4 would be his last day of fishing in front of the port, after he became paralyzed due to his injury in the explosion. Michael did not realize that a knee injury near the Roum Hospital would prevent him from carrying out his work in gas distribution normally, as he was currently unable to climb stairs. As for Mirna, the glamorous woman in her thirties, she was tired of waiting for two years to have her voice heard by an official in the Ministry of Health, who aspires to help her perform an operation on her foot, which should have been performed after the first year of the explosion.
Screams conveyed by “An-Nahar” from the pain of the victims of the explosion, while thousands are in the shade, silently facing their physical and psychological suffering, after they became “temporary or permanent” people with special needs, and their lives became “hell” in a few seconds.
Khaled Diab: 55 years old
Khaled Diab suffered two injuries to his face and his feet, and he resorted to treatment in field hospitals within two days of the explosion, but the shock came after a week, when he felt disintegration in his feet, and he was immediately paralyzed.
The magnetic resonance imaging, which he took at the time, reveals that the force of the explosion damaged the nerve in his spine, in addition to a fracture in one of the vertebrae in the lower back. Hence the journey of suffering began.
Diab tells An-Nahar that he does not receive any follow-up from the Ministry of Health, and “the most I can get is a painkiller pill.” He adds, “I obtained a disability card from the Ministry of Affairs after submitting medical reports, but it does not cover the cost of entering the hospital.” the hospital”.
Diab’s new reality prompted two of his four minor children to drop out of school and go to work, while one of his children also has special needs since childhood, and he is unable to secure the monthly cost of medication due to his health condition.
Diab describes himself as a “living martyr,” and says, “I can’t do anything to help my family. If the state had a living conscience, it would look into our conditions.”
Michael Samuel: 53 years old
Michael Samuel had to neglect his knee injury for a few days, due to the crowding in Beirut hospitals and his poor financial conditions, which led to a rapid worsening of his condition, and today he is moving around with great difficulty with the help of crutches.
After the explosion, Samuel lost his job in distributing water and gas, and securing the family’s food became a daily challenge, as he was unable to climb stairs and reach customers. He told An-Nahar: “My daily allowance was $100, and today it is only $4… I have been eating from the meat of my shoulder blades to live, and someone has been paying for my daughter’s tuition since the explosion.”
Samuel’s health condition requires the installation of a completely new prosthetic knee so that he can walk normally again. However, his “bad” experience with state facilities gave him the impression that “the citizen is neglected in his country,” which prompted him not to apply for a disability card. He added, “I do not want the beauty of the Lebanese state… Two years ago, I was in the Beirut Governorate building, and I was prevented from using the elevator because I did not have a disability card, even though my injury was clearly visible.”
Mirna Aladdin: 35 years old
Over the course of 3 years, Mirna Aladdin has repeatedly shared her story on many platforms, and she is still unable until now to communicate her voice to those concerned, and she is patient with severe pain in her foot, caused by the presence of an iron rod and screws that were implanted after the explosion, and that was supposed to be removed after a year. Only one, so as not to generate side effects.
Aladdin lost her job near the port as a result of the disaster, and she also lost a stable life that she hoped to live with her two sons and husband, but today she is unable to stand for a long time or climb stairs, and often suffers from severe bouts of pain in hot and cold weather because of the metal body inside her foot. .
Aladdin tells An-Nahar about her suffering two years ago: “I underwent the first surgery at the expense of the Ministry of Health immediately after the explosion, and health coverage has been cut off since then. I moved from a wheelchair to a walker, then to crutches, and even a chair I paid for.” rent it at that time,” wondering in great pain: “Where is the Ministry of Health from the complications of my permanent pain in the feet and back?”
This woman’s cry for help covering the cost of the operation to remove the penis from her leg has not received a response before, while behind closed doors officials “have diligently humiliated their people, after causing them direct harm as a result of the explosion.” She told An-Nahar: “No one remembers me except on the anniversary of the explosion, and I and 6,000 wounded people live as if we were dead, so who takes care of our psychological treatment?”
It is not only Aladdin’s health that requires follow-up, but also her psychological condition, as she is in constant deterioration, and her heart suffers when she hears a strong sound of aviation, as a result of the trauma she was exposed to in the explosion, and she often cannot afford the cost of her permanent medication.
In addition to her constant pain, the constant disregard of those concerned in the Ministry of Health for her condition led to her suffering from “despair.” rod from my feet?”
There is no official census for them
The port explosion, the catastrophe, left new disabilities for a large number of injured people, but it is remarkable that, after three years, there is no official count of them; The work of the Ministry of Social Affairs is limited to registering cases applying to obtain a “disabled card”, according to the classifications it has, and there are those who have never applied for registration until now in the “Program for Securing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” at the Ministry.
The approximate numbers mentioned by the “Lebanese Union for Persons with Mobility Disabilities” to “An-Nahar” indicate that there are about 800 people with special needs, classified between temporary and permanent disabilities, including people with previous disabilities that were exacerbated by the explosion, but it is statistical and “non-binding.” to the ministry, according to what the head of the program, Hiam Khoury, told Al-Nahar.
Some of the temporary disabilities were treated with time, and their owners returned to practicing their normal lives, while other cases developed into permanent disabilities due to the absence of health follow-up, and others passed away successively.
Legally, every person who has suffered a disability as a result of the explosion, which is “included in the Ministry’s classifications,” has the right to apply for a “disabled card” from the Ministry of Social Affairs, although it is “not activated in reality,” according to the testimonies of the injured.
Khoury understands that people with disabilities are not interested in registering for the program. “The medical incentives that were covered by the disability card are no longer available today, and this situation includes all disabled people in Lebanon, not just the cases injured in the explosion.”
Since the port disaster until today, the affairs centers have not been closed to anyone, according to Khoury, and “we are ready to receive anyone whose injury is included in the classifications, and we are looking for available means to serve them,” stressing that “health coverage is entrusted to the Ministry of Health, not the Ministry of Affairs. Especially the provision of medical and surgical supplies.
As for the question addressed to the Ministry of Public Health from “An-Nahar” about this issue, it did not receive an answer, due to the inability to communicate with the concerned party.
The role of NGOs
For her part, Silvana Lakkis, head of the Union of Mobility Handicapped Persons, told An-Nahar, “Today we are in contact with approximately 70 active cases, while other cases are in the shadows that we have not yet known about, and the situation is very bad.”
She added, “The tragic scene is represented in the absence of health coverage for the disabled. The injury did not kill them, but depriving them of completing their treatment and rehabilitation is the killer. We lost 4 people last year, although their injuries were not serious, but they died due to the lack of access to treatment.”
Al-Laqees confirms the continuous contact with the Ministry of Health to follow up on the file, while “Minister Firas Al-Abyad was clear that we do not have the capabilities to exempt the injured from paying the advance payment prior to admission to the hospital, or the difference in the ministry’s bill as well.”
Faced with this reality, one of the injured, who was injured in the head, stomach, and feet, and underwent many operations over a period of 3 years, is waiting for the approval of the Ministry of Health on his file to perform an emergency operation on him, while there is no answer until now, although his life is at risk with every delay.
Al-Laqees met the suffering of people with special needs by asking the state to “obtain a decent compensation that guarantees them a decent life to live as it was before the explosion. There are challenges and obstacles to securing new jobs, in addition to supporting the families of those who died as a result of injuries to live in dignity,” stressing the need for “fortune Inclusive standards for sidewalks and the city during the reconstruction process.
2023-08-02 13:26:00
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