Baghdad, November 23: Basima Muhammed, 21, was preparing for her wedding night when a big boom changed his life. “I was visiting a friend who works in the same street so we could go to look after my weeding dress,” the Iraqi girl told.
“My marriage was scheduled after two months.”
As she neared her friend’s house near the Ministry of Municipality, an explosives-laden car rocked the area, killing several people and injuring others.
The explosion not only left many scars in Muhammed’s face, but also left her heart broken.
“(My wedding) has been cancelled after my arranged groom find out that my face was full with scars and I lost one of my hand fingers,” she says, with tears rolling down her checks.
With a broken heart, Muhammed recalls when her would-be fiance’s mother asked the doctor about her face.
“(She) asked the doctor in front of me if there was any possibility for my face to return as it was before.
“When he said that there was a possibility to remain some scars, my mother was informed two days latter that the marriage was going to be cancelled and not postponed.”
Thousands of Iraqis have been injured in the deadly violence that rocked the Arab country since the 2003 US invasion.
Worsening their dilemma are the lack of plastic surgeons in Iraq and the high costs of the plastic operations.
Muhammed’s hopes only revived after a foreign journalist offered to cover the expanses of her plastic surgeries to bring her face back to normal.
“I pray for hours asking for God to bless me and bring a solution to my case because I’m not sure how long I will stand seeing my face totally marked and with scars that might never go away.
“It is hard to see that one day you have one of the most wanted faces in Iraq and latter you turned into a monster, where even your fiance run away afraid from what you turned in,” she said.
Muhammed is not sorry for her fiance.
“Now I’m the one who doesn’t want to marry him anymore,” she said.
“If a man isn’t able to stand beside his wife under a so critical situation, he isn’t the right man for me.”
Dying Hopes
Hussam Abdul-Qahhar’s son was injured in a car bomb blast in Baghdad a few months ago.
“My son is only 7-years-old and suffered the injuries a couple of months ago when he was walking home from school with his cousin and a bomb came out close to them, he recalls.
“My nephew just hurt his leg but my son lost part of his left ear and his face had many deep injuries that left disfigured with many uncomfortable scars.”
The bereaved father is desperately seeking plastic surgeries for his beloved son.
“He is too young and I don’t want my son to become a person who women run away from and rarely can find a friend to go out with,” he said.
“Unfortunately it is a reality in Iraq, people look deep into your scars and aren’t ashamed of asking about it. It is a difficult situation to any human being.”
But the high costs of the plastic surgeries kill any hope in the Iraqi father’s heart.
“I took my son to neighbouring countries looking for a good doctor and a low price for the surgeries and for the scars he had in his face and for a reconstruction surgery in his ears, I had to pay at least US $60,000 dollars.
“Most of my money I had was spent travelling with my son looking for a surgery but we couldn’t afford,” he said.
“Now, we are back in Iraq depending on public hospitals and the full agenda of the very few doctors who didn’t flee the country.”
Desperation
There has been a high demand for plastic surgeries across Iraq as the operations have become the only hope for injured Iraqis to begin a new life.
“In days close to attacks in Iraq, our number of patients increases impressively,” Dr. Thamer Wissam, a plastic surgeon at Wassit Hospital, told.
To cope with the high demand for plastic surgeries, Iraqi hospitals and clinics are dedicating more hours a day, sometimes overnight shifts.
“The number of patients who attend in a day is similar to what many hospitals outside would take one month to care,” said Wissam.
“Parents are desperate to find a solution for their children and relatives to remaining results of the bombing.”
An attendant at Wassit Hospital says the agenda of all doctors have pre-booked reconstructive and cosmetic surgeries until December and there are still many other cases to be attended on the coming year.
But with the new wave of violence in the war-torn country, some injured Iraqis don’t wait for plastic surgeries.
“My daughter didn’t stand the scars in her body and face,” Nahlah Kammal, 49, a mother of three, told.
“She was disfigured and a lot of work had to be done by the doctors, however, she couldn’t stand the suffering and committed suicide two months after the first surgery.
“She was so pretty and had just had her first baby. She cried everyday when she looked into the mirror and used to call herself a monster. She killed herself scared that she wouldn’t return to what she was before.
“Unfortunately she didn’t have patience and the delay in surgical procedures because of the demand helped to make her desperate.
“God forgive her and the responsible for those bombing which she was victim and took her dreams away. If they don’t pay in this world, certainly God will punish them in the judgment day.”
-Agencies