One Name, Seven Letters
He clutches a pen and, with shaky handwriting, writes down the name ‘Mohamed.’ He is referring to the nurse who cared for him when he was first hospitalised at our Lashkar-Gah Surgical Centre.
Haroon is 14 years old. He was playing at home when he grabbed onto a metal pipe that sticks out of the ceiling of his house. It came loose, and struck him hard in the head.
After the fall, the injuries on his face swelled up so much that he was unable to see and breathe. His jaw was fractured, and the pain immobilised him.
When Haroon arrived in our emergency room in Lashkar-Gah, he was unconscious.
“We live in a house with 20 other people,” his brother tells us. “Haroon and I get by with odd jobs, but we don’t earn enough to afford any medical treatment. We don’t have a car. To bring him here to the hospital, we had to pay for a taxi. But we knew that here at EMERGENCY, they wouldn’t charge us anything for Haroon’s treatment.”
EMERGENCY’s project in Lashkar-gah, Afghanistan, is supported by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation.
