Stateless Lahdad pins hopes on citizenship to get son cured

Dubai: Hassan Lahdad and his family led a normal life in the UAE. Despite being people without documents to prove their identity, they were provided with most of the benefits that are usually extended to Emiratis, making them feel at home here.

All that changed two years ago when Lahdad's son was run over by a car and he was left bleeding on the road with a serious head injury. The shock of his young son's injury came with a reminder that a sense of belonging was ultimately associated with a legal document.

Lahdad was born in Balochistan and he moved to pre-union Sharjah in the 1950s. His children were born and raised in the UAE. They studied in government schools, went to government hospitals and dressed and spoke like any other Emirati. They had, therefore, never considered themselves to be any less than fully integrated members of the Emirati society.

Hit-and-run

In December 2006, Lahdad's 16-year-old son, Ahmad, was crossing the street when a pickup vehicle hit him and fled the scene, leaving him on the road. Ahmad was rushed to the Sharjah Kuwaiti Hospital, where emergency scans revealed diffused axonal injury. The neurosurgeon, who wrote a report five months later, said Ahmad would benefit from being taken abroad for advanced treatment.

Now, two years later, Ahmad, who is approaching his 18th birthday, still continues to lie in a vegetative state in a private Dubai hospital, undergoing a neuro-rehabilitation programme that has not resulted in any significant progress. He breathes through a tracheostomy tube connected to his windpipe and is fed through a tube placed directly into his stomach.

His father and brother take turns during the day to visit him at the hospital and ensure that his family is always present by his side. The nurses often jovially attempt to communicate with him. Sometimes Ahmad smiles, but he has never uttered a word or shown any sign of verbal response since the accident.

Until six months ago, a government-affiliated charitable body was paying Ahmad's hospital bills, "but it stopped because his stay at the private hospital did not result in any progress," says Lahdad, who has been struggling to pay the bills. Moreover, the hospital has now asked him to move his son. With only three weeks of the grace period remaining, Lahdad is panicking about not being able to provide adequate care for his son.

Assistance

"Where are we going to get all the medical equipment? We don't even have a nurse. What if he develops complications," he questioned.

The authorities have tried to assist him a number of times, says Lahdad. The medical reports were sent by the UAE embassy in Berlin to hospitals there for a cost assessment. Lahdad has also been offered a temporary passport to take his son abroad.

While Lahdad is grateful for all the assistance, he says it will still not be enough to cure his son. The expected cost of a long-term treatment will amount to more than 250,000 Euros (Dh1.17 million), which the family cannot afford. But for now, Lahdad's primary concern is to keep his son in the hospital.

The only hope that Lahdad is clinging on to is gaining an Emirati citizenship under the government's drive to naturalise people without documents to prove their identity. He claims to have met all the criteria and his family is awaiting a round of interviews before the process for naturalisation begins.

The sense of belonging, freedom of travel and possibility of a university education for his children are no longer his primary concerns. For now, all Lahdad wants is a cure for his son.