ABU DHABI // A lifetime of hard work and years of chain smoking caught up with Bilal Haji.
Mr Haji, 53, was a lorry driver for more than three decades. He neglected his health to such an extent he would ignore the strokes he used to suffer.
“I have six children and a wife to support,” Mr Haji said. “I couldn’t stop to see a doctor.”
That was until last year, when the Syrian had a major stroke that paralysed the left side of his body and damaged his sight.
Mr Haji also had to have open-heart surgery and spent two months in hospital.
“In a year, my life turned upside down,” he says.
His insurance does not cover his medication but what Mr Haji needs most is a corneal transplant because he is going blind.
“I can no longer work and life has become even harder for all of us,” said the father of six who has two children still in school.
Doctors have told him that the operation will cost Dh40,000.
“I looked for the cheapest hospital and that was the cheapest but I still can’t afford it,” Mr Haji says.
His eldest son is 32 and supports four children. “I can’t ask him for money for the operation because he earns about Dh3,000, which isn’t enough to support his family,” Mr Haji said.
Hisham Al Zahrani from the Dar Al Ber Society said that “as a patriarch who has always supported his family this is a very difficult time for Mr Haji”.
“Losing his eyesight is the latest blow and we hope we can support him to at least preserve his eyesight,” he said.
salnuwais@thenational.ae
