Hisham with his father in Germany[/caption]
In Egypt Today’s March 2015 issue, Hisham Salah’s story was profiled as part of a piece about healthcare associated infections in Egypt. On March 28, Hisham passed away at a German hospital. To the dismay of his family and friends, his tragic story has not ended, despite his death
By Ahmed Mansour
During the days of the January 25 Revolution, when people vacated their homes and flooded the streets leading to Tahrir Square to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, it went without saying that the possibility of never returning home, the possibility of death, was real. Parents who feared for their children knew that, but the youth at this time didn’t care much for their parents’ permission or their own lives. Completing the mission was the order of the day, safety came second.
After successfully ousting Mubarak and dissolving the National Democratic Party in 2011, another regime headed by Mohamed Morsi came to power after the country held its first presidential elections since the revolution. Dissatisfaction with Morsi’s rule coupled with social and political movements that saw Egyptians flood the streets once again in protest led to a chain of events that saw Morsi removed from power by the Armed Forces on July 3, 2013. The overthrown president’s followers would not sit quietly, however, and resisted Morsi’s dismissal with their own protests and sit-ins.
Hisham Salah, a former student at the Faculty of Dentistry, was one of those young men that wanted to achieve something for their country. He was shot during one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s raids on Al-Manial after the forced evacuation of Al-Nahda Square in July 2013.
Immediately after he was shot, two of his friends rushed him into to the nearest hospital: Qasr El-Aini Hospital.
After his first operation, Hisham’s temperature started rising. It was only after his parents transferred him to a private hospital that he was diagnosed with a Salmonella infection, caused by bacteria found in feces. His family members claim that Hisham caught it during his operation in Qasr Al-Aini Hospital.
After being treated in a private hospital for almost a year, while his medical fees climbed to exceed more than LE 800,000, Hisham was transferred to Germany so that his treatment could continue.
On the day before his last surgery, Hisham posted on his Facebook page: “Tomorrow I’ll be having my last surgery, the doctors will be attempting to remove the last pieces of the bullet inside me, and I hope things go well. I also hope that you pray that I make it safely, and in case I don’t I want you all to forgive me for all the trouble that I have put you through and if I ever hurt anyone please forgive me and accept my apology. I wish I could go back home and meet my family and friends, whom I miss greatly. Only your prayers can make this dream of mine come true.”
Hisham entered a coma for three days after his surgery, and passed away on March 28.
“Words could not express how we felt when Hisham passed away. We were all surprised that he did because we all felt that his will was strong enough to make it. Obviously his body couldn’t bear the amount of surgeries he had in such a short period of time, so it just gave in,” said Ahmed Salah, Hisham’s brother.
“After Hisham passed away, we were trying to get his body back from Germany, and as hard as it was to try and get the paper work ready for his transfer, the Egyptian airport seized his body and demanded that we pay LE 30,000 in body transportation fees,” said Ahmed. “We didn’t have this money on the spot, so we had to ask people to donate money so that we could afford to get him out for a proper burial. This day I realized that we live in a country that has no respect for either the dead or the living.”
The fee for Hisham’s body to be released is one of many financial burdens his family has been dealt. According to one of Hisham’s friends, Omar Mostafa, in order for the private hospital to release Hisham so that he could continue his treatment in Germany, his family had to pay the remaining fees of Hisham’s operations: LE 625,000.
“His family couldn’t of course manage this amount of money in such a short period of time, and they also refused to sign any paper that states that they will owe the hospital the money,” said Omar. “So a friend of ours called Kareem Mahmoud, without telling anyone, signed the papers so that they would release Hisham to continue his treatment in Germany. Right after Hisham’s death, a letter was sent from the hospital to Kareem’s house stating that a lawsuit has been filed against him for not paying the money.”
The families of both Kareem and Hisham have been trying to ask the hospital to drop the charges against Kareem, with the promise of paying the money in installments over the next seven years, but the hospital refused and insists on taking legal action against Kareem.
Egypt Today tried to get in contact with the hospital’s spokesperson, but they refused to give insight about the case, stating “that this is an important legal matter and we wish not to get the media involved.”
“Hisham is a victim of the lack of security in the country, he was a strong, intelligent, hard worker who only cared about his country and did everything he could to protect it,” said Amany Motaz, Hisham’s mother. “The government should get involved by paying this money to the hospital or forcing them to give them up. We owe LE 625,000 to 34 or 36 hospital owners, so if they all, or some of them, decided to give up on the money they won’t be losing a lot. We cannot afford to pay this money, we lost all we had trying to save Hisham from the negligence of a public hospital that many people rely on.”
According to Hisham’s mother, his medical fees in Germany exceeded LE 8 million, but the German hospital gave up on the money, stating that because he died under their roof no one is obligated to pay. Unfortunately, that same reasoning does not hold in Egypt. While Egyptian hospitals maintain that they will take legal action, Hisham’s mother upholds her position and continues to seek justice for her son. “I demand government interference.”
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