Saudi Arabia: Farmer loses arms in freak accident, dad goes blind and brother quits job to look after them

Abu Dhabi: A Saudi young son went to help his father on the family farm but lostboth arms in a freak sprinkler irrigation system accident. The father went blind in grief, while the older brotherquit his job to take care of his family.

The ordeal was recounted by the father, Mohammad Al Sharari, to a Rotana Khalijia TV show.

“My young son Al Ashdaf was trying to remove wheat straws from the sprinkler system, unaware that it was on, but the entanglement halted it at the time. As they were released, the moving parts of the sprinkler chopped my son’s left arm. Trying to help stop the system with the right arm, it was also lost in the freak accident.”

The sobbing father added: “I rushed my son to the Tabarjal hospital, but surgeons there decided it was better to quickly amputate both damaged limbs than try to save them.

“My elder son, Raji, had to sacrifice his job to take care of me and his disabled brother.

“Raji initially tried to transfer from his work in the border guards in Najran, but he could not, so he had to resign to take care of me and his brother. Thank God, and I’m happy with that.”

The dad said he lost his eyesight in grief over what happened to his son. “Al Ashdaf was the most beloved of my children, and the loss of his limbs hit me hard, so my vision was gone from crying over him.

“I cried so much for my son’s loss of limbs that my eyes turned white,” the father said.

The pensioner, with a large family consisting of four wives and 26 sons and daughters, appealed to officials that “prosthetic limbs be fitted for his son and that his elder son be employed in Tabarjal governorate, in northern Saudi Arabia, so that he would be able to earn his living and stand by us.”