Organ trafficking survivor finds new life
A teenager left permanently disabled after human traffickers took his kidney is now thriving in his new home at Montgomery County’s Stillwater Center. Surur Ali was just 7 when he and his family were kidnapped while trying to flee their home country of Eritrea in northeast Africa.
“Human traffickers hid them for a month and demanded a ransom — money or their kidneys,” said Mohammad Nur, Surur’s father, through a translator. “They gave them an injection. My older son and my sister-in-law died. My wife and Surur both got sick.”
Eritrea is one of the most repressive of 180 countries, worse than North Korea and Turkmenistan, according to press-freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders. News reports and documentaries detailing kidnappings and organ trafficking like Surur’s family experienced have been reported for decades.
The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) says organ trafficking is of particular concern in North and West Africa. INTERPOL has now launched a new task force specifically to fight human trafficking for organ removal and to prevent more families like Surur’s from being victimized.
Mohammad’s wife has since recovered, but Surur is now partially paralyzed and unable to speak.
“It’s very hard having a sick child after everything that happened. It’s very, very hard,” said Nur.
The family was finally able to enter the United States as refugees in 2018, seven years after they escaped kidnappers. They arrived in Florida for initial treatment before being referred to Dayton Children’s Hospital for additional therapy.
Therapy allowed Surur to learn how to ride an adaptive therapy trike and to communicate using signs and an alternative communication device.
When his parents began looking for a permanent home, Montgomery County’s Stillwater Center was at the top of the search results. It was one of the only intermediate care facilities with both the translation and recreational services Surur needed. Surur became a resident in 2021.
“It’s our privilege to be able to serve Surur and his family because the families have needs too,” said Dr. Michelle Mobley-Pierce, director of the Stillwater Center. “When you see his face and you see the faces of the parents, they feel good knowing that they’ve left their loved one in good care with us.”
The Stillwater Center has a birth-to-death model, providing care for nearly 100 residents with profound developmental disabilities and/or significant medical needs. It also offers respite care for families who need additional support for a loved one with complex needs.
While interpreters are always available for families. Dr. Mobley-Pierce said it was important all staff members, including those not involved in Surur’s day-to-day care, were taught basic greetings and conversation to make Surur feel welcome.
With language concerns addressed, there was one other major concern for Surur’s family.
“The family was like, ‘Would we allow him to have his bicycle here?’ Yes, we take him out on the grounds, we let him ride in the building, we take him everywhere he wants to go,” Dr. Mobley-Pierce said.
Surur goes everywhere a typical teenager might want to go — from school to events like Hauntfest at Kings Island.
“We’ve just seen him blossom in a lot of ways and we try to minimize the trauma that he has been through, in fact what the entire family has been through,” Dr. Pierce-Mobley said.
Surur’s family says he’s continuing to improve, gaining weight, improving his communication skills and making friends at school and with residents.
“He has been through a lot, and he suffered a lot. He’s getting better and we have high hopes for him here,” Mohammad said. “The best thing about the Stillwater Center is the options they give us. They are giving us freedom to do what we need to for our son. If we didn’t have the help here, I don’t know where else we could go.”
“When I see Surur smile or I see any resident smile or any family, then I know we’re doing the right thing,” Dr. Pierce-Mobley said.
“My hope for Surur is that when he turns the lights off at night, he feels safe and that we’re going to protect him and he won’t be harmed ever again.”
You can view a video story about Surur on the Facebook page for Montgomery County, Ohio.