MAKKAH, 8 April 2007 — A charity set up by the mother of Prince Thamer ibn Abdul Aziz has donated an electric wheel chair costing SR15,000 to an handicapped three-year-old girl called Shomokh.
Khaled Al-Shumairi, the head of Health Affairs and the head of the Patients’ Friends Society in Makkah, handed the chair to the girl’s father recently.
“This chair came exactly at the appropriate time, we were really in need of it,” said Saleh Al-Zahrani, father of Shomokh, who is unable to move and has difficulty speaking. Al-Zahrani said he has taken his daughter to many doctors, who have all advised him to provide her with rehabilitation therapy. However, governmental rehabilitation centers refuse to take her as she has low intelligence.
Al-Zahrani’s situation is a pitiful one. His eldest daughter, Shorokh, also has difficulties speaking and finds it difficult to walk. “I have had to take loans from banks for their treatment. I’ve also bought cars on installments and sold them to provide myself with capital,” he said, adding that he has accumulated a SR500,000 debt in the process. All of the money, he said, has been spent on his daughters’ medication.
Al-Zahrani added that he has great faith in God, and hopes people will help him pay his debts off. “I want to continue my daughters’ treatment at rehabilitation centers inside the Kingdom or abroad. According to doctors, the treatment could take a year or more,” he added.
The mother of the daughters said, “I have four children, the oldest one is Shorokh and the youngest is Shomokh. All have been delivered by cesarean section. After Shorokh’s birth, she began to suffer convulsions and epilepsy. This followed a lassitude in muscles, which led to her being unable to walk.”
She added, “Shomokh wasn’t any better. She had the same symptoms as her older sister. Their father has worked hard to get money for their treatment after the government centers refused to take them in.”
The family has even traveled to Jordan for treatment. “The doctors there said that the girls need rehabilitation therapy. The girls have to stay for a year in Jordon for treatment and then the doctors will decide whether there is hope or not,” she added.
The parents said they were unable to remain in Jordan due to financial difficulties and so decided to return to the Kingdom and continue treatment here. The father has already visited some private rehabilitation centers but his financial circumstances restrict him in what he can do.
“The authorities keep demanding that my husband pays his debts. I urge people to help us financially for our daughters sake,” she added.
