Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Torn apart in Gaza, teen gets therapy here

Swaying but maintaining his balance inside a hospital therapy room, 15-year-old Asaad Mahmoud is learning to walk on prosthetic legs, circling the floor with bright-eyed determination, and tackling the daunting challenge of stairs.

Physical therapist Ryan Brown (right) stands upright the prosthetic legs of Asaad Mahmoud, 15 of Palestine, at Shriner's Hospital. He's in Philadelphia receiving treatment for injuries from a bomb in the Gaza Strip. He lost both legs and his left arm. (Sarah J. Glover / Inquirer)
Physical therapist Ryan Brown (right) stands upright the prosthetic legs of Asaad Mahmoud, 15 of Palestine, at Shriner's Hospital. He's in Philadelphia receiving treatment for injuries from a bomb in the Gaza Strip. He lost both legs and his left arm. (Sarah J. Glover / Inquirer)Read more

Swaying but maintaining his balance inside a hospital therapy room, 15-year-old Asaad Mahmoud is learning to walk on prosthetic legs, circling the floor with bright-eyed determination, and tackling the daunting challenge of stairs.

Sweat glistens on his brow; he hesitates on the first stair. "I can't," he protests momentarily, before summoning the courage to abandon the banister in favor of the crutch-cane cuffed to his one good arm.

By week's end he would climb the first tier of steps, unassisted, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Later, he would exult before the Rocky statue.

The Palestinian youth lost his left arm at the shoulder, his left leg above the knee, and his right leg below the calf in an explosion a year ago in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund, an international charity, spent $4,500 to bring Mahmoud and his mother, Maryam, to Philadelphia for free treatment at Shriners Hospital for Children.

A PCRF staffer in Gaza identified him as needing care that could not be provided there or through one of the charity's periodic medical missions to the Middle East.

In Philadelphia, a network of Arab American professionals provided logistical support for his seven-week therapeutic stay.

"Here's a guy who was totally immobile. He couldn't go from point A to point B. Now he can get around. That kind of life-changing care . . . gets you quite a bit in terms of overall health benefit," said Nader Hebela, a Philadelphia orthopedist and member of PCRF's medical advisory board.

Additionally, Hebela said, there is the goodwill generated for Philadelphia and the nation "when he goes back to Gaza and says the United States is a place where he got good care."

Getting Mahmoud out of Gaza took five months because the lone transit point for Palestinians - Rafah Crossing, on the border with Egypt - has been closed almost continuously since Hamas seized power in Gaza last year, PCRF founder Steve Sosebee said.

Mahmoud is from Beit Hanoun, a northern Gaza farming village. He was playing soccer a year ago, he said, when he and friends were injured by an Israeli tank shell. Within hours of the explosion, his crushed limbs were surgically removed.

In May, on the day Mahmoud thought he would be coming to America for treatment, he made the dusty trip from Beit Hanoun to Rafah only to be turned away by gun-toting Egyptian border guards.

"It was a depressing day for everyone," Sosebee said. "He had gotten his hopes up that he would finally get treatment. It's a big letdown psychologically for a child who has gone through what he has gone through physically."

Supporters inundated the Egyptian mission at the United Nations with letters, e-mails and faxes urging intervention. The Arab American Institute in Washington got involved. By July, the pressure produced results. Flying via Germany, Mahmoud arrived in Philadelphia on the Monday after Independence Day.

Shriners prosthetists crafted his limbs. Interpreter Mike Bouchnak translated his Arabic to English. Physical therapist Ryan Brown trained him to walk using the cane-crutch for balance.

"He's a typical 15-year-old kid," Brown said, "yet so untypical in terms of what he has been through. Whatever challenge I put in front of him, he has met. Inclines. Declines. Loose terrain is still difficult, though."

Mahmoud is among a dozen Palestinian children treated in the last decade at Philadelphia Shriners, part of the network of 22 Shriners hospitals that since 1922 have provided free orthopedic and pediatric specialty care for patients up to age 18.

Some, like 6-year-old Amal Okasha, who came from a Gaza refugee camp to have hip surgery in Philadelphia a decade ago, had congenital disorders. Others, like Mahmoud, are casualties of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. But if you didn't know where he is from, you might never guess at the conflict he has seen.

"He has a great outlook on life considering what happened to him," said prosthetist Michelle Slider, who helped form and fit Mahmoud's limbs. "I think he is going to do great. The capability is there for him to play basketball and get back with his peers."

After a therapy session that was among his last before returning to Gaza last month, Mahmoud spoke of his favorite experiences in the United States.

He loved seeing the White House, New York City, and Baltimore's Inner Harbor, he said. He loved riding in Bouchnak's sleek BMW convertible roadster. He loved eating tilapia, a fish he can't get at home. And he loved knowing that when he got home he could "hang out" with friends, "go for a walk," and "look normal" in the mirror again.

"To see my son walking, I am really very grateful," said his mother, a shy woman in a head scarf.

She thanked the charity that had brought him to Philadelphia, the medical team that supported him here. And, of course, she added, "the grace of God."

For a video of Asaad Mahmoud's therapy and experiences in Philadelphia, go to www.philly.com/

philly/news/

breaking/EndText