Published : 29-06-2018
Palestinian-Syrian refugee “Tarek Darbas,” (31 years old) from Yarmouk camp, who suffers from lower body paralysis due to shrapnel from a shell that hit his family's home in Yarmouk, made a call for help to the International Red Cross, the international NGOs, the Palestinian Authority and its Embassy in India, to take urgent action to help and assist him in securing his treatment or helping him to return from India to Syria.
According to Al-Darbas, the mortar shell that fell on his place of residence in Yarmouk camp, causing him a number of shrapnel wounds. He was transferred to Al-Salam Hospital where he went under two surgeries. The first was on December 21st, 2012 to stop severe bleeding above the dorsal spinal cord with the withdrawal of multiple bone fragments. A shrapnel stabilized in the 11th dorsal cord, which caused him a lower half paralysis with urinary retention. The second operation took place three days later, when doctors extracted a metal fragment from the right leg, indicating that the doctors had not managed to remove two of the four shrapnel fragments and two fragments remained in his body.
Al-Darbas: “After I lost my hope and felt hopeless about my health, I became unproductive and a burden on my family, I began to address many humanitarian and medical organizations to help me in treatment.” He added that he managed to contact an Indian doctor to which he explained his health condition. She responded to his request and sent him an entry visa into India, for him and his mother, to be treated there.
"When I arrived in India, my mother and I went with the doctor, who took us to a doctor's office,” Al-Darbas continues. “There I was asked to make a magnetic and coaxial image and when I came back to see the doctor he told me that I need to install a neurological device costing $20,000. I was shocked at this sum and told the doctor that I thought she would treat me in a systematic manner, but she denied it and did not help me at all.”
Al-Darbas went on, the words digging into his throat, and the tone of sadness and despair began to cover his voice: “I have spent all I have. Only some money is left with me and I will pay it for the hotel tonight. My old mother and I will sleep on the streets tomorrow. I can’t imagine that this is happening to me and I was extremely overwhelmed when someone lent me their hand for help. Now, despair controls me and I do not know what to do in a strange country where I do not understand their language and can not deal with them. He noted that he made this appeal for help to the good doers and human rights organizations, in order to help him pay his travel costs to transfer him from India to Turkey, or return him back to Syria.
Palestinian-Syrian refugee “Tarek Darbas,” (31 years old) from Yarmouk camp, who suffers from lower body paralysis due to shrapnel from a shell that hit his family's home in Yarmouk, made a call for help to the International Red Cross, the international NGOs, the Palestinian Authority and its Embassy in India, to take urgent action to help and assist him in securing his treatment or helping him to return from India to Syria.
According to Al-Darbas, the mortar shell that fell on his place of residence in Yarmouk camp, causing him a number of shrapnel wounds. He was transferred to Al-Salam Hospital where he went under two surgeries. The first was on December 21st, 2012 to stop severe bleeding above the dorsal spinal cord with the withdrawal of multiple bone fragments. A shrapnel stabilized in the 11th dorsal cord, which caused him a lower half paralysis with urinary retention. The second operation took place three days later, when doctors extracted a metal fragment from the right leg, indicating that the doctors had not managed to remove two of the four shrapnel fragments and two fragments remained in his body.
Al-Darbas: “After I lost my hope and felt hopeless about my health, I became unproductive and a burden on my family, I began to address many humanitarian and medical organizations to help me in treatment.” He added that he managed to contact an Indian doctor to which he explained his health condition. She responded to his request and sent him an entry visa into India, for him and his mother, to be treated there.
"When I arrived in India, my mother and I went with the doctor, who took us to a doctor's office,” Al-Darbas continues. “There I was asked to make a magnetic and coaxial image and when I came back to see the doctor he told me that I need to install a neurological device costing $20,000. I was shocked at this sum and told the doctor that I thought she would treat me in a systematic manner, but she denied it and did not help me at all.”
Al-Darbas went on, the words digging into his throat, and the tone of sadness and despair began to cover his voice: “I have spent all I have. Only some money is left with me and I will pay it for the hotel tonight. My old mother and I will sleep on the streets tomorrow. I can’t imagine that this is happening to me and I was extremely overwhelmed when someone lent me their hand for help. Now, despair controls me and I do not know what to do in a strange country where I do not understand their language and can not deal with them. He noted that he made this appeal for help to the good doers and human rights organizations, in order to help him pay his travel costs to transfer him from India to Turkey, or return him back to Syria.
