Dubai: Zaheer Ahmad Minhas Aziz is only 53 but he cannot even smile on his own, let alone move.
A mysterious condition has made it impossible for him to move or even breathe without assistance and he has been at Rashid Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for more than 14 months.
The disease, diagnosed by neurologists at the hospital as motor neurone disease, a progressive lifelong condition, has caused his muscles to waste. He has to breathe with the help of a ventilator.
As well as the medical condition he faces a particular humanitarian crisis as he has been advised to move back to Pakistan for care. His wife, who has an Indian passport cannot travel to Pakistan, and he cannot go to India as he is a Pakistani.
Meanwhile, their bills are mounting. The ICU costs Dh3,100 each day and his wife is scared to even think of the amount they have run up at the hospital with no means to pay. “The last I heard, the bill was close to Dh300,000. I am so poor and had to request a Pakistani family to give me a visa and I stay in a rented apartment in Karama, Dubai, which I have to struggle to make ends meet. My husband, whose visa has expired, has been declared as absconding by his company and I have no idea what I am going to do,” says the distraught wife who has been lovingly caring for her husband every day, hoping that some day he will walk again.
Shaikh has happy memories up until 2012, when Aziz was able-bodied and worked as a driver for an airport catering company.
“He has always been a hard-working man, a kind father and generous husband,” says Shaikh about her husband who now lies helpless in the hospital bed. They married 18 years ago in this city — Shaikh was a widow with two children from Hyderabad, India, and Aziz, from Sialkot, Pakistan, was divorced from his first wife. Together, Shaikh and Aziz brought up their children — two each from their previous marriages — eked out a humble living, gave them a basic education and got them married. “Now when it was time for us to spend some good years together this crisis befell us,” says Shaikh.
Aziz experienced the first signs of limb weakness in 2012, when he couldn’t walk. “One fine day, my husband started experiencing difficulty while walking. His limbs became slow and then he had difficulty getting up from bed. His condition worsened quickly and he could not walk without support,” recalls his wife who rushed him to Rashid Hospital. The doctors treated him at the outpatient department (but could not explain why this was happening to Aziz, until one day he just could not move and was gasping for breath and had to be moved to the ICU.
“The doctors have been very kind and generous but they now tell me to just pray for his recovery as the medicines are ineffective. But I am hoping for a miracle. I cannot go to Pakistan and he cannot travel to India. He has no one who can help him there. We have no means to pay. I have faith in God, and hope my husband will respond to medicines and begin walking again. I really have no idea what the future holds for us,” says Shaikh helplessly.
Aziz looks on with pleading eyes from his hospital bed, whispering his request as he cannot speak or breathe without the aid of a machine. “No one has ever had any such a disease in my family, my father is 82 and active in my hometown. However, I have no one else but my wife to care for me. I cannot go to Pakistan as she would not be able to accompany me there. I cannot travel to India. I hope people understand my situation and are kind enough to help me out.”
