RAMALLAH, November 22 (JMCC) - Forty-year-old Mohamed Wadi has leukemia. He fought for permission to leave Gaza and its beleaguered hospitals for Egypt, where he could receive care.
But even in Cairo,
reports the Electronic Intifada, Wadi was initially turned away from from the overcrowded cancer ward.
“The first three days, I had to go to a private clinic, for I was not admitted at the hospital,” Wadi explained to The Electronic Intifada while sitting in a wheelchair at the leukemia ward. “Since last Thursday, I have been staying with my nephew. I have been helpless, screaming late at night and causing a great deal of noise to nearby neighbors. I came over here with a clear referral for admission at the Nasser Institute, but so far I haven’t been able to be admitted. Why?”
Wadi teared up as he expressed hope that he would be admitted to the clinic, which is on the eighth floor of the hospital.
“For the time being, what I have is [just] torture and more torture, as I am suffering but surviving with the help of painkillers that I can hardly afford and also embarrassed to purchase myself, because I am being covered financially by the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry,” Wadi, a dentist by profession, added, sighing.
After a brief talk with a doctor in the leukemia clinic, Wadi was told he was not going to be admitted and that he should wait until there is a spare bed in the 27-bed ward.