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PATIENT TESTIMONIAL : Itw Kamal
On November 16, 2005, around 6p.m., Kamal was riding around Baghdad, accompanied by a friend who was driving the car, when up ahead they spotted an American patrol that was blocking the road. Kamal was heading home, where his wife and three children were waiting. He didn’t see where the bullet came from that hit him in the cheekbone, under his left eye. He arrived in Amman nine months later. “I lost part of my jaw, my nasal septum was broken, and my frontal bone broke under the impact. Some of the bones in my face were also shattered. I didn’t lose consciousness, but I bent over so I wouldn’t suffocate. I still have a piece of the exploded bullet in my shoulder. My friend was petrified with fear. He immediately stopped the car, and the Iraqi army took me to the hospital, where I spent about ten days, seven in intensive care. I had two operations in Baghdad, one to put my nose back into place and for stitches, and the second to get metal pins in my jaw. Then I left the hospital, but I went back every Sunday, to get care and to check the status of my jaw. But after two months, my jaw was completely dislocated. I realized it was useless to go back to the hospital. Beginning in December and for five months, my friends and I have been scouring the hallways of the diplomatic missions. We always get the same answer: “Leave your file, we’ll call you back.” I went round the international organizations and the foreign embassies, with no success. Each time they told me I wasn’t the only one in this situation. I also knew it was useless to go to a private hospital, since the same doctors practice there, and nowadays they don’t have the means to do this kind of specialized surgery. By chance I ran into Dr. A., who had my file and who sent it to an international organization, based abroad. He asked me to get ready and to get a passport, so I could be referred here. Thanks to an acquaintance, I got the passport in five days. I arrived at the Red Crescent hospital in Amman on August 21, and I had a first operation two days later. The surgeon put my jaw back into place and inserted implants at the joints. But I’m still going to have several more operations. There’s no bone left under my eye, they’re going to reconstruct my nose, and I still have several frontal bone fractures. The doctor has already set a major operation for next week. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get home. I miss my children. But I have no particular anxiety about their security. We live in a relatively calm neighborhood of Baghdad.” » Back to the Jordan / Iraq Project Profile index
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