“Sudanese Journalist Abdul Karim Qassim Dies Due to Lack of Health Care During War”

A few days before his departure, Qasim, who worked as a journalist and proofreader for a number of newspapers and local media in Sudan, wrote on his Facebook page: “Kidney dialysis has stopped. If war and bullets do not kill you, non-dialysis will kill you! Whoever knows where to do dialysis, let us know.”

Abdul Karim continued to make distress calls and appeals to the parties to the war to stay away from health facilities and lift the siege on Al-Amal Hospital in Bahri, north of the capital, as he had been receiving health care there for years and it was close to his place of residence, but the sound of the guns masked his faint voice until he died after suffering with pain.

Qasim is one of hundreds of Sudanese who suffer from chronic diseases such as heart, kidneys and diabetes, who died due to their failure to obtain the necessary medical care after 72% of the treatment institutions in the capital, Khartoum, went out of service, in addition to the difficulty of accessing operating hospitals as a result. Armed clashes.

Patients in Sudan live similar tragedies, but the 7,000 kidney failure patients who receive treatment in 104 health centers, according to the Ministry of Health, are the most suffering, as their health is subject to rapid deterioration if they do not find sufficient dialysis sessions.

With the collapse of the health system in the capital, Khartoum, many kidney patients left for Madani, the capital of Gezira state, Port Sudan and the White Nile in order to save their lives by obtaining the necessary medical care, but the state centers were unable to meet the huge number of new patients, so the suffering continued.

Amira Sabri, the wife of the late journalist Abdul Karim Qassem, told Sky News Arabia the story of her wife’s suffering before his death, as the family was in a constant state of wandering amidst the whistling of bullets and cannons in the burning city of Bahri, in search of a working dialysis center, to relieve the pain of her loss.

Sabri says, “We went to Al-Amal and Ahmed Qassem Hospital in Bahri, Al-Safia Center, and New Alban Hospital in the Haj Youssef suburb, east of the capital, and we were able to get a reduced dialysis session of only two hours instead of 4 hours as it used to happen with him in the past, and the number of sessions has also been reduced from Twice to once a week.

And she adds, “The reduction in the hours and number of dialysis sessions led to a significant deterioration in the health of the late man, after the potassium deficiency in his body and his heart almost stopped, and he became unable to move, which increased our concern about him, so we left for the city of Shendi, which is about 200 km from Khartoum.” North in search of necessary health care.

However, after traveling all these distances, “Abdul Karim Qasim” found the situation in the city of Shendi similar to what he left in Khartoum, where dialysis centers are crowded, and he was able to obtain dialysis sessions at a rate of three hours in one session every week, which led to a further deterioration. His health condition and then his death, according to his wife.

Thousands of victims

Qasim was not the only one who fell victim to the lack of medicine. There are hundreds of patients, according to unofficial estimates, who died at the gates of closed hospitals or inside their homes after the fires of war prevented them from leaving, while they were struggling with the pain of illness.

Sudanese journalist Othman Mirghani said, “His older brother, Muhammad, died during the past week, adding a number to the thousands who died in silence due to the failure to obtain medical care, and they were not included in the statistics of organizations that monitor those who were shot dead, and many times more fell from their notebooks than those who were denied access to hospitals.” .

Mirghani added to Sky News Arabia, “I think that those who died because of not having access to medicine or a doctor or not reaching the hospital are equal to ten times the number of people killed by bullets and bombs.”

He continued, “My brother is better than hundreds of people who, after more than two months, still find no one to cover their bodies, of which nothing remains but the bones. At least he found someone to pray for him and entrust him, whose deposits are not lost. May God accept him with the prophets, martyrs, and the righteous.”

The Secretary of the Preliminary Committee of the Sudan Doctors Syndicate, Dr. Attiya Abdullah, in an interview with Sky News Arabia, indicated that most of the hospitals in the capital, Khartoum, are out of service, and even those that operate suffer from power and water outages, and the difficulty of access for specialized medical personnel.

Electricity shortage

Attia says, “Ahmed Qassim Hospital, as one of the largest centers for the treatment of heart and kidneys, operates erratically due to the lack of electricity and water supply, and the matter applies to all hospitals in the capital, Khartoum, which leads patients to death, and there is no outcome, but many died due to not receiving the necessary care.” “.

The heart of “Amira Sabry” was not satisfied with the grief of her husband, the journalist Abdul Karim Kassem, but it burned with sorrow for the late colleagues who were receiving treatment with him in dialysis centers. The danger of dying in silence.

She says that her husband left her with her three children, “two girls and a boy,” amid waves of grief and sorrow over his loss. They look at a dark reality around them after the fires of war destroyed everything and devoured the dean of their family. She believes that the time has come to end the ongoing fighting, so that the blood and tears that flow Drooling over lost loved ones.