Moment this Yemeni boy’s vision changed
HASSAN WHO LOST AN EYE IS AMONG YEMENIS BEING TREATED IN INDIA
On February 12, 2017, six-year-old Hassan Abdu was playing with his two siblings at home in Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Mocha when their house was hit by Al Houthi rocket fire, changing his life forever.
The attack completely destroyed their house and left all three siblings injured. But it was Hassan who has suffered the most, with a flying flake of concrete hitting his left eye and the side of his head.
Though the head injury has healed, the little boy, who has barely seen the world with his two eyes since then, now has just one to see the world that is crumbling around him.
“His left eye was removed by doctors in Mocha after the attack as it was totally damaged and my boy now has to make do with only one eye for the rest of his life,” said Abdu Mohammad, the boy’s father, who spoke to Gulf News, which visited the Yemeni war victims receiving treatment in India as part of the UAE government’s humanitarian mission.
Hassan is among a batch of 74 patients who arrived in India in early July to receive treatment at various branches of VPS Rockland Hospital, which is facilitating the UAE’s Emirates Red Crescent’s mission. The mission has provided treatment and rehabilitation to more than 3,000 war victims so far, including 250 who have recuperated in India since April last year.
According to the boy’s father, who was away at the time of the attack, the incident has left his family homeless like thousands of others. “We sold whatever little valuables we had and moved to Aden, where we live in a small rented shanty. We have no income and I have left my wife and two children back home to God’s mercy,” said Mohammad.
Cosmetic eye implant
Admitted at a branch of VPS in Manesar, a town in Haryana some 50km south of Delhi, Hassan is currently undergoing correctional surgeries and will shortly receive a cosmetic eye implant. “Sadly, we can’t give him his eye back. A cosmetic eye implant is the best we can do for Hassan right now,” said Dr Tamorish Kole, chairman, Institute of Emergency Medicine at VPS Rockland.
Timid and short-statured for his age, Hassan never went to school as Yemen’s civil war started just when he attained schoolgoing age, and it is highly unlikely he will enter a classroom anytime soon.
The war has left a permanent scar on his face and possibly on his spirit as well, and he still seems unable to comprehend what has happened to him and his family.
All he has to say is that he hates Al Houthis. “I want to go out and play with my friends, but Al Houthis don’t let us play. I hate Al Houthis, they have taken my eye,” said Hassan.
Hassan is set to receive his cosmetic eye in a few days and is likely to return home with his father this week, eager to get into the waiting arms of his mother.