By Libya Herald staff.
Cairo, 15 August 2014:
When doctors at a clinic in Benghazi told Khamis Abu Mohammed and his wife that . . .[restrict]they did not have the resources to care for their son who had been shot in the lower back fighting for retired General Khalifa Hafter’s Operation Dignity, Abu Mohammed loaded his son into the back of a rented car and drove for two days to Cairo seeking better medical treatment.
Once in Cairo, he checked his son into the Cairo Medical Tower, where doctors are hopeful that he will be able to walk again. Currently, he is confined to his hospital bed and has no feeling in his legs.
While many of the soldiers wounded in Benghazi are flying to Tunisia for treatment, those who are unable to sit through a commercial flight — there are no airlifts — are forced to find another way to get the care they need. For Mohammed Khamis and others, driving to Cairo was the only option.
“Those who were able to fly went to Tunisia, but a small number of us were forced to drive to hospitals in Alexandria and Cairo,” he explained.
According to hospital administrator Aiman Al-Khidri, seven other wounded soldiers from Benghazi had checked in just this past week.
“The other wounded soldiers came by car, and all of them were with Operation Dignity,” Abu Mohammed confirmed.
When asked how he would pay for his son’s medical costs, Abu Mohammed said that the Libyan government had promised to foot the bill.
“There’s no money for a hotel room, so I’m sleeping on the couch in my son’s hospital room,” he added.
Mohammed Khamis, 17, enlisted in Benghazi’s Saiqa Special Forces two years ago, just as his father had at his age. Both father and son say they want to see a safe, free Libya.
“We believe that democracy can work in Libya, and we have high hopes for the new House of Representatives,” Abu Mohammed said.
“We want the Libyan people to be able to live normal lives—to be able to travel and interact with the international community,” he added. [/restrict]
