Hussein S.
Hussein S. was a student attending the technology institute near his home in the Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Adel. On his way to school on February 2nd, 2006, the thirty year-old suffered several serious injuries from a roadside bomb targeting an American military vehicle. While he sustained various shrapnel wounds to his neck, torso, and extremities, it was Hussein’s head that received the most damage from the explosion. A large portion of his skull was shattered, and additional pieces of the bomb were lodged in his brain. Hussein also lost his left eye, as well as his hearing due to the intense noise generated by the explosion.
His initial experience within the medical system was not much better. Hussein had to transfer between three hospitals before receiving sufficient treatment at a special neurological facility. By the time he got there, he was stricken with pneumonia, having done so much moving while in such a severe condition. However, he managed to stay there for twenty days, until he was able to obtain further care at another hospital, this one run by American forces. Hussein was treated there for five months, then in a public hospital for one month. His condition improved upon his return home, and as a result of regular visits first to the American hospital for outpatient care, and then to the public Iraqi hospital, though this was made difficult due to deteriorating security in the area. Hussein’s most recent doctor subsequently fled to Jordan, and Hussein also left Iraq, in order to continue recovering under his care.
Several procedures had already been performed to save Hussein’s life while he was still in Iraq. When he arrived in Jordan, a skull plate made from medical-grade plastic, donated by Doctors Without Borders, and funding from the Direct Aid Initiative allowed Hussein to have the cranioplasty necessary to protect his head from further injury. Following this surgery, he was also able to move certain limbs and digits that were originally affected by the blast, upon regaining pressure on the right side of his brain. Hussein’s next operation, performed in December of 2007, closed the emergency tracheotomy he received in Iraq. As of January 2008, he was discharged from the hospital, having made an impressive recovery. Roughly one month later, Hussein was happy to gain an artificial eye implant, and now feels he can once again take pleasure in looking in the mirror.
While he is now quite physically sound (considering the bodily damage he had endured from the violence in his home country) Hussein is currently afflicted with epilepsy–a side effect of his head operation. He is still receiving medication for this, which we hope will be only temporary. The Direct Aid Initiative was able to support Hussein and his loving mother with a portion of the funds needed for his operations, but the rest has come from their personal savings. We are now trying to find extra help for the two of them within their local community so that Hussein can go on to lead a normal life, and they can both continue living in a safe environment.
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