Carer’s bill over bedridden uncle
An elderly Iranian man in the UAE relies on his niece for his care. But after a stroke and kidney failure he ran up a Dh84,000 bill in medical expenses that his carer can’t afford to pay. Now she faces the possibility of jail, Shireena Al Nowais writes
ABU DHABI // Hussein Ramadan is bedridden and requires care 24 hours a day.
The 78-year-old’s body is covered in gaping sores from lying in bed without movement, and he is diabetic.
The Iranian is divorced and has no children. His parents and siblings are either dead or too old to care for him.
If it were not for his niece N H, 38, who has devoted her life to his care, Mr Ramadan would be withering away in a retirement home in Iran.
“I can’t allow that to happen ever. I’ll not send him back to Iran to be put in a home and wait until I get a phone call telling me that he is dead,” she says.
N H is also divorced and the provider for her three children and uncle. In January, her uncle’s kidneys ceased to function and he needed five dialysis ses- sions. He also suffered a stroke.
“That was the first time I took him to the hospital. The second time was when he started developing bedsores, which kept worsening because of his diabetes,” she says.
“It was so bad that you could see the bone and there was so much pus. The hospital never told us that we needed to move him from side to side every few hours so this wouldn’t happen.” Mr Ramadan was taken to a Dubai government hospital for a second time in March. A few weeks ago he was discharged, the sores still covering his back and sides.
“I was able to pay for his dialysis the first time but I couldn’t pay for his treatment this time,” N H says.
“The hospital told us we had to leave because the bill had reached Dh84,000 and they knew we couldn’t pay.”
She gave the hospital security cheques for the amount and took her uncle home knowing she could never pay.
“I am prepared to go to jail for him but he still needs care,” she says. “What will happen if his kidney fails again or his blood sugar shoots up?”
N H has appealed to every charity in the UAE for help but has had no response.
“I’m prepared to do anything for my uncle. Now that he is old and needs help, do we cast him away? I can’t do that but I need help,” she says.
“I’ve paid all the money I’ve saved and will not hesitate to pay more – but I don’t have any more.”
Hisham Al Zahrani, manager of zakat and social services at Dar Al Ber Society, said N H needed Dh84,000 to pay her uncle’s medical bill otherwise she faced the risk of going to prison.
“Her uncle cannot survive without her since she’s the only able family member who can care for him,” he says. “She also has three young children for whom she takes care on her own.”
“Unless we can raise the money, the children will lose their mother and Mr Ramadan will be sent to a retirement home in Iran where he has no one. The family all moved to the UAE decades ago and this is their home.”