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Sometimes Words Just aren’t Enough
It’s not every day that we get to catch up with a former patient and hear about their new life. And when it does happen, it’s something that’s hard to put into words. Recently, we were lucky enough to experience just that – and all the emotions that came with it. More than 13 years…
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Abdul Had the Best Protection any Baby Boy Can Have
Shirin was nine months pregnant when she was injured in an explosion in the city of Ghazni, Afghanistan. The shrapnel from the blast perforated her abdomen, and hit the right foot of her unborn child. As soon as she arrived at our hospital in Kabul, we performed an emergency C-section. When baby Abdul was born…
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“I Want to Play again, Without Using Those”
Two years ago, a bomb destroyed the roof of her house, killed her cousin, and seriously injured one of her brothers. She also lost part of her right leg in the explosion. Last week, we admitted her to our Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Centre in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. She arrived with her mum and younger brother,…
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We Always Try to See the Glass as Half Full.
She’s five, he’s four. In front of me, lying in neighbouring beds, are Fazlia and Wasia. They come from Nadali and Marja, two different districts in Helmand province, but the same thing brought them here: a bullet. One each. The one that hit Fazlia went straight through her abdomen. Luckily, it missed her spine. We…
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“I’m just so happy – and so grateful”
Do you remember Peace? She’s a little girl from Nigeria who, last November, underwent an operation at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Khartoum, Sudan, to treat a congenital heart defect. On the right is Juha, the cardiac surgeon who successfully performed the operation. As you can see, it was smiles all round when…
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“Let me introduce you to Sarbast: his name means ‘Freedom’”
“Mine injury”. This is the main reason most people become patients at EMERGENCY’s Centre for Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration in Sulaymaniyah. They are war victims, amputees because of the injuries created by mines buried in the ground: explosive devices that the war has left behind, hidden so that they can inflict as much damage as…
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What does it mean to be a patient with a chronic disease?
“Football is not a game for girls.” Nura is 12 years old and has been diabetic since she was four. It’s not the first time she has come to the centre and today she is accompanied by her father’s partner. She is one of several chronic patients who are frequently seen at EMERGENCY’s Health Centre…
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For Them The Glass is Always Half Full
Some people manage to look on the bright side, no matter what. For them, the glass is always half full. Every day in our refugee camp in Ashti, Iraq, we see their gentle tenacity and their desire to start again by looking past the hardships brought by violence and war and, above all, by helping…
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He’ll return, and we’ll be waiting for him
In the training room at EMERGENCY’s Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Centre in Sulaymaniyah, Kayan (8) is sitting on the floor with his mother, doing what every other child his age would: playing. On the floor, alongside colourful plastic toys, lies his prosthesis. “Kayan is trying to adapt his walking after technicians at the centre built…
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“Now I Feel More Confident, and I Love My Job”
At EMERGENCY’s Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Centre in Sulaymaniyah, men, women, and children – victims of war – represent the majority of patients we admit and treat. But they’re not the only ones: we also take care of patients who have undergone amputations for other reasons, such as road accidents. “I can’t remember anything from…