Testimonies

Ahmad Sweisi, mechanic

My wife and I have six children, and we live in the Sheikh Radwan section of Gaza City. Our eldest son, Yasser, who is eleven years old, was shot during the clashes between Fatah and Hamas on 15 May 2007. A bullet hit him in the shoulder and then his neck, paralyzing him.

Immediately after being shot, Yasser underwent surgery at a-Shifaa Hospital, but the operation failed and the bullet remained lodged in his neck. The day after he was shot, he was transferred to Soroka Hospital, in Israel. Following tests, the physicians at Soroka said he was totally paralyzed and had shortness of breath and that he needed to be connected to a respirator around the clock.

On 1 June 2007, I returned Yasser to the Strip where he was immediately hospitalized at a-Shifaa Hospital and connected to a respirator. The doctors inserted a feeding tube into his body, and told me that I would have to buy a respirator for him to use at home. It costs $15,000, and I didn't have the money.

We couldn't take Yasser home because we didn't have the respirator. On 18 August 2007, after we received an approval to enter Israel, I took Yasser to Alyn Hospital, in Jerusalem, for rehabilitation. At Alyn, Yasser was taught how to use a wheelchair and computer and other things that would help him in daily life.

On 18 September 2007, we returned to Gaza and Yasser was immediately hospitalized in al-Quds Hospital, which is in the southern part of Gaza City. He was in poor condition and was admitted to intensive care. He remained there until 4 May 2008. All this time, I searched for a donor to buy a respirator for the house as my son's life depended on it. I went to many aid organizations, but it didn't help.

One day, while Yasser was in the hospital, a local journalist called and told me that a Swedish journalist who visited Yasser in the hospital wanted to buy him a respirator. When Yasser was discharged from the hospital, the respirator was waiting for him at home.

Since then, my wife and I have spent day and night at his bedside. We operate the respirator and a device to suck out the mucous. All the time, we try to make things easy for him. Because he lies on his back all the time, he has a risk of heart attack. We thus monitor the respirator and give him medication to help him breathe and to thin his blood. We make sure there is ventilation in the room and that it is clean.

Since early November 2008, it has become much harder. Because of the Israeli siege, the power company does not have sufficient fuel, and every day there are blackouts for about sixteen hours, sometimes consecutive, sometimes not. During a blackout, we use a manual respirator called "ambu" to assist him breathe.

Because the blackouts have continued for more than a month, I bought, for NIS 600, a small generator to operate the respirator. The generator operates on benzene, one liter an hour. We operate it twelve hours a day (and overall consumption of about twelve liter a day), and four hours a day we use the manual device. Each liter of benzene costs from seven to twenty-five shekels, depending on the availability of fuel in the Strip. I earn NIS 2,500 shekels a month, which is barely enough to pay for the medicines and benzene.

Our life is very hard and tense. I worry every day about my son's life. I am afraid that the electricity blackouts in the Strip will kill him.

Ahmad Omar a-Sweisi, 32, married with six children, is a mechanic and a resident of Gaza City. His testimony was given to Muhammad Sabah at the witness's home on 3 December 2008.