Nothing is like the suffering of the family of child Ghassan Baraka 17 years old; frequent convulsions that shake his body every quarter of an hour threaten his life and leave his parents with a feeling of powerlessness and confusion.
The child is suffering from the consequences of gas inhalation at the perimeter of Al-Bureij camp during the demonstration of the Great March of Return last Friday. He was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah for immediate treatment yet since then he has been suffering from frequent convulsions.
The Israeli occupation forces systematically fire dangerous types of gas at Palestinian demonstrators near the Gaza borders that affect the condition and performance of the nervous system of the affected causing hundreds of cases of temporary convulsions but some cases have suffered from long-term convulsions.
Unusual case
The father of the child appears to be unable to do anything to his son. He explained the details of the incident when Ghassan was hit while he was standing hundreds of meters away from the Gaza border fence. Ghassan inhaled gas and slipped into a temporary coma before waking up on frequent convulsions.
“My son is surviving on painkillers only. He takes a syringe every 12 hours and I do not have money even for the painkillers” Ghassan’s father told the Palestinian Information Center. “Sometimes the painkiller does not stop the convulsions. I want to treat him at home or abroad or at any place until he returns to normal life.”
Baraka appealed to officials in the Palestinian Authority to save the life of his son Ghassan who is no longer able to speak.
Sudden seizure
As Ghassan’s mother spoke he suffered from a stroke that was heard all over the hospital making him flip upside down as his father runs to fix a tube in his mouth so that he does not choke. Four young men of his family try to control his shaky body as he makes a choking sound from his throat.
The child is still waiting for a referral to the hospitals of the 1948 Occupied Territories or outside the Gaza Strip as Gaza’s hospitals with their current conditions are unable to provide anything for him.
