SHARJAH: A Pakistani man who once returned half a kilogram of gold and thousands of dirhams he found in the private taxi he drove is struggling to raise Dh40,000 for a lifesaving heart operation and another Dh36,000 to pay labour card fines.
Abdul Aziz Abdul Hameed, 64, who found the riches left behind by an Emirati woman back in 1985, had won plaudits from the police for his act. Thirty years on, Abdul Hameed, now forced to retire on medical grounds, is hoping someone will do him a favour.
“I don’t have any savings and I am dependent on my two children who earn little. They don’t have the money to pay for my operation. I need urgent help,” he said from his Al Qasimi Hospital bed.
Abdul Hameed, who has lived in the UAE for almost 40 years, worked as a cash desk clerk till 2012 when his condition forced him to stop working. On that occasion a local TV station had helped raise funds for a pacemaker.
The chain-smoker suffers from abnormally high heart rates and recently endured 25 ‘cardiac shocks’ before being admitted to the emergency ward of the Sharjah hospital. However, doctors say they can’t carry out the ‘urgent electrophysiology study and ablation’ as long as the family doesn’t guarantee the Dh40,000 bill.
“He suffers from heart rates of above 200 (normal: 60 to 100 beats) and has been on a defibrillator for a year, but needs the procedure done within weeks to save his life,” said Dr Mohammad Magdy Abbas, consultant cardiac electro-physiologist, Al Qasimi Hospital.
However, this time there is a bigger impediment, says Rehman’s eldest daughter, Shazia. “Besides the money, the hospital also needs my father to have a visa. His residency ran out last May but when we went to renew the visa we received a rude shock. We were told by the Ministry of Labour he had fines to the tune of Dh36,000 for not making a labour card on time,” said the 35-year-old who earns Dh7,500 at a local trading company. She and her brother, Atif, 28, who earns Dh4,500 at the same company are the only breadwinners in the family of six.
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