قصة إسراء
من بين العديد من الأطفال الذين قابلتهم في أسوان، لاحظت فتاة ذات أربع سنوات تُدعى إسراء بصحبة والدتها. وقد لفتت انتباهي حيث أنها بدت أكبر من عمرها بالنسبة لتصرفها ونظرة عينيها البنيتين الكبيرتين.
During her examination she was not scared or intimidated by Prof. Fata, the head surgeon, at all. On the contrary, one could read hope and some pride in her eyes. With the help of Mohamed, I followed her journey through the hospital and was then invited by the family to their home afterwards.
Esraa had been previously operated by other surgeons who did not fix her lip properly although the family saved for years to pay for it. Like in the case of Esraa, many people are victims of the greed and unprofessionalism of certain doctors. She still had her cleft palate to be fixed and came to the hospital hoping to have a free operation.
I asked her a couple questions. “Are you scared? Are you happy to have the operation?” Esraa replied telling me proudly that she was not scared at all, because she’d had an operation before. She told me she wanted surgery in order to be more beautiful. The self-confident answer from this 4-year‐old child left me speechless.
Soon she became acquainted with the nurses at the operating room and spent a considerable amount of time on their lap waiting for her turn. When it came time for her surgery Esraa behaved very bravely. She hardly cried. When I saw her after surgery in the recovery room, her mother, uncle, and grandmother were gathered around and I witnessed the effect of the surgery on the mother’s face. A mixture between joy and gratitude reminding me once more, what a life-changing experience this must be for people.
The following morning, Mohamed and I paid a visit to Esraa in her home in Aswan. It immediately became clear to us how poor these people are. It would be unthinkable for them to have paid themselves for medical treatment. I also learned Esraa’s father left the family after her birth. They live with just a few dollars per day in the remains of a broken—down house with an open roof, temporarily fixed with dry palms.
بعد يوم واحد من العملية كانت قد تغيرت حياة إسراء للأفضل. وقفت إسراء أمام كاميرتي بكل كبريائها وجمالها.