Beirut Blast: Aunt recalls moment 4-year-old cousin’s face was ripped off
Zeinab Al Saeed tells her harrowing story of the explosion in Lebanon earlier this month
Muscat: Zeinab Al Saeed, a Lebanese community member in Oman, has not been able to sleep ever since the blast which rocked Beirut. She still wakes up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat following the devastating explosion which killed 180 people.
“I keep hearing the cries of my sweet four-year-old cousin Yara whose face was ripped off by the blast,” she wails.
On the 4th of August, the day of the blast, Yara was playing with her brother when suddenly the massive explosion inside the port destroyed the family home. The blast sent all kinds of debris flying around the home and a piece of glass caught Yara in the face ripping off her cheek. Her father carried her to a nearby hospital but it had been destroyed by the blast. He managed to make it to a second hospital where doctors quickly stitched her cheek back on but advised him that she would need plastic surgery.
Zeinab, who was constantly on call with her family back in Beirut, couldn’t find any words of solace to comfort them as Yara screamed out in pain and drifted in and out of consciousness.
“It was a nightmare for my family as the explosion ripped through the house from room to room. It was a surreal sight for all of them, to see a peaceful moment at home getting transformed, literally right in front of their eyes,” she says.
A few days later a doctor saw one of Yara’s pictures and agreed to do the surgery for free, seeing the plight that she was in.
“Even when a lot of our possessions and peace is lost, at times like this when humanity comes to our rescue, we start feeling good again,” adds Zeinab who along with her Lebanese friends and family in Oman have joined hands with Dar Al Attaa, a leading charity organisation in Oman, to raise close to RO 71,000 (USD 182,000) for the victims in Lebanon.