Boundaries no barrier to boy, 10, back from the dead
Najib Ali, 10, had been declared dead and his body was being prepared for burial after a missile struck his Syrian home.
His mother touched his ankle in a gesture of farewell – and felt a faint pulse.
Extensive surgery in Syria saved his life but the shrapnel embedded in his spine from the attack near Homs left him in agony, unable to walk and suffering from kidney failure.
Five years on and after an epic journey, the teenager is set for an operation in the UK today that could save his damaged organs and give him a slim chance to walk again.
In an incredible show of dedication, his parents pushed Najib in a wheelchair and carried him from Syria through Turkey and into Greece for medical help.
In Greece, where Najib, his parents and two brothers were given refugee status, the family were told 18 months ago that he needed spinal reconstruction surgery.
“Najib couldn’t be helped in Greece because the services there only had one consultant on the ward and they didn’t have a space for him,” said Hanan Ashegh, founder of the Goodwill Caravan charity that is helping the youth.
“It’s been an uphill battle – like climbing a mountain.”
Ms Asegh told The National that the bureaucratic obstacles the young refugee had to face to receive treatment were almost insurmountable.
But through a crowd-funding appeal, Britons donated between £5 and £500 a month for his care and journey to London’s children’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for six hours of reconstructive surgery.
Since last year, the appeal has raised £78,000 for Najib’s care and his surgeon, Dr Ramesh Nadarajah, has waived his fee for the operation today.
“What I intend to do is straighten out his spine as much as I can and level his pelvis,” Dr Nadarajah said at a consultation with Najib.
“I will put screws into the bony part of his spine and interconnect it with two long rods, and that straightens out the spine quite a lot.”
After the operation, Najib will remain at the hospital for 15 days then move to a specialist spinal injury unit for eight weeks of rehabilitation.
He will then be flown back to Greece and await approval for an experimental operation in Poland that his family hope will give him the ability to walk again.
The surgery has a one per cent success rate but the family are willing to try anything to help him recover.
Despite raising enough funds for Najib’s initial surgery, the charity is now seeking more for his post-operative care. It needs £30,000 for two months of private rehabilitation.
Goodwill Caravan mainly works with some of the 2,500 orphaned or unaccompanied refugee children in Greece, many of whom are in prisons and detention centres, supposedly for their safety.
It raises money for the children’s legal fees and to protect them from human traffickers and abuse.
His parents pushed Najib in a wheelchair from Syria through Turkey and into Greece, before crowd-funding got them to London