Dubai: Boy left brain-damaged after pool mishap, family faces Dh100,000 medical bills
A Dubai family is looking at over Dh100,000 in medical bills and lifelong care for their only son after a swimming pool accident in their community. Indian expat Tabassum and her husband moved to the UAE just last month in hopes of a better life for their children. But instead, they are now grappling with an uncertain future after her son, Ali, almost drowned in a pool. As they had arrived in the country just a few days before the incident, they also did not have any insurance coverage.
After arriving in Dubai during the first week of May, the family moved into a residential community close to the Al Qudra area. For them, the best part of it was the common pool. Three of their four children, aged 3 to 14 years, knew how to swim and loved it. On the fateful day, their elder children, two daughters aged 14 and 10 and Ali (9), played in the big pool while the youngest daughter stayed in the baby pool.
'They were old enough to take care of themselves, and all three of them were strong swimmers, so we didn't pay attention to them,' Tabassum told Khaleej Times. 'We were focused on my little one in the baby pool.'
'No idea what happened'
At one point, Tabassum's eldest daughter, an award-winning swimmer, gave strict instructions to her brother and sister not to foray into the deep end of the pool and went over to the baby pool to play with her sister. 'She was there for hardly five minutes,' she said. 'When she went back to the pool, Ali was underwater. At first, she thought he was playing with her, but then she realised he was drowning. She and I immediately pulled him out, and she began performing CPR on him. Within two or three minutes, the lifeguard arrived."
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Ali was found in the exact spot where his sister had left him, where the water just reached up to his chest. 'I have no idea what happened,' Tabassum said. 'He knew how to swim, he was old enough to take care of himself, he was in a spot in the pool where his feet could touch the floor, and we were close enough to hear him cry. Not once did we hear or see anything amiss.'
Ali was rushed to a private hospital, which was located close to the community. He was immediately put on ventilator. 'After five days, he was on oxygen, and then he was able to breathe on his own,' she said. 'The doctor said that all the reports are normal, but the MRI shows he has hypoxia. This means there is damage in his brain, which will take a long time to recover. He cannot eat or drink; listen or speak or control his brain. However, I'm hopeful that he'll improve.'
Could not afford the treatment
Ali is now at home but requires full-time care. The family have not been able to clear the outstanding hospital bills. 'We brought him home because we could not afford to continue the treatment,' said Tabassum. 'Right now, we are trying to manage at home, but we will not be able to keep it up for too long.'
She said the couple were excited when her husband got the opportunity to move to Dubai. 'We thought we would finally be able to give all our children a global education and better future,' she said. 'But now, we are looking at going back to India as we cannot afford the treatment and the school fees here.'
However, she is still hopeful for a miracle. 'We're now trying to reach out to charity organisations in the hope that someone might be able to help us,' she said. 'Our dreams for the bright future of our children have been shattered, and we are drowning in the debts of medical bills, but I keep praying to God for some help.'
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