Islam Hussein is a living martyr of the civil war raging in Yemen. Here in Kochi, he has a reason to smile. He had lost both hands below the elbow joint as well as vision in both eyes in a bomb blast in Yemen. He has now regained 90 per cent vision in the left eye.
Meeting the media after treatment at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Hussein smiled and raised both his hands. Hussein, who dreamt of becoming a doctor, saw his ambition shattered when a bomb blast debilitated him while he was in eleventh grade. He could no longer see the world and both his hands and legs were damaged.
Hussein lives close to the ancient village of Taizz, which is situated in the hills of central Yemen. The civil war is intense in this area and there are over 600 youths here who are in a similar condition. Most of them have lost either their hands or eyesight or hearing sense in bomb blasts.
But Hussein and his family refused to accept his fate and lead a life of misery. Doctors at a hospital at Yemen told him that his legs had to be amputated. But Hussein’s father decided to take him to a hospital in Egypt instead. Treatment there saved his legs but both hands beyond the elbow had to be amputated.
His family brought Hussein to Kerala for another trial hoping to make his life better. It produced good results. Corneal transplant surgery conducted at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences helped Hussein regain 90 per cent vision in his left eye and the other eye was saved from total blindness. The procedure was led by Ophthalmology department head Dr Gopal S. Pillai and Dr Anil Radhakrishnan.
“During the last three years, 500-600 people have lost their limbs and lives every year in the war. I am lucky to be alive. Now I can see the world, this is my rebirth,” Hussein said with tears in his eyes.
Hussein’s father Ahamed Mohammed, who is a teacher, and his mother Dikra Hussain have now decided to spend two more years in Kochi to reconstruct his hands.