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29 March 2024

Daughter's appeal to save UAE taxi driver

Ailing Abdul Aziz Abdul Hameed in Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah.

Published
By V M Sathish

A Pakistani family, which has lived in the UAE for over 30 years, is desperately trying to get an emergency surgery done on the critically ill 64 year-old head of the family.

Abdul Aziz Abdul Hameed, a taxi driver, was admitted to the Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah last Monday. 

His eldest daughter, who works in a private company, has been running from pillar to post to get an emergency surgery done to save the life of her father who is getting electric shocks from a device implanted earlier to combat his heart problem.

“I have tried my best to keep my father alive. We have been spending Dh2,000 per month on medicines. When he had a major heart problem, a surgery was earlier done with the help of TV programme. Last week, he developed problems again and he is now in need of an urgent surgery according to doctors,” said Shazia Abdul Aziz, who said she tried to take a bank loan and has sought help from her employer, the Pakistan Consulate in Dubai and charitable groups.

“I feel I am getting electric shock from a battery inside my heart. It is happening quite often,” said Abdul Aziz from his hospital bed.

Dr Mohammed Magdy Abbas, consultant cardiac electro physiologist of the Al Qassimi Hospital, says in a medical report that the patient suffers from ischemic heart disease, 3-vessel disease and myocardial infraction.

“He had PCI to LAD in 2006 in Dubai and PCI to RCA in 2012. He had an intra-cardiac defibrillator implanted in April 2012. He has recurrent bouts of ventricular techycardiac,” the doctor said.

According to the doctors, he was admitted after receiving 25 direct electric shocks to his heart.

“He is getting too many shocks from a device kept in the body to cure his heart disease. He got 25 shocks at a time which is quite dangerous and doctors have suggested immediate surgery to rectify the problem,” Shazia said.

Abdul Aziz, who also worked as a cashier for a Pakistani restaurant in Deira, cannot undergo a surgery in UAE because his visa has expired and he owes around Dh40,000 to the Emigration Department for overstaying.

The family also needs to raise Dh 60,000 or so to finance the emergency surgery at the hospital in Sharjah.

"I tried to take a bank loan to clear the fines and to pay for the surgery. But it did not work out because banks are not giving loan to employees of all companies,"Shazia  said.

“We have been trying to sort out the problem with the former employer and the Emigration Department. My father’s visa has not been renewed and without a clear visa, the surgery cannot be done,” she said.

The restaurant, where Abdul Aziz worked for 18 years, did not renew his visa and the fine has been getting accumulated over the years. “We don’t know why the visa was not renewed or why the pending emigration fee was not paid by the employer,” his daughter said.

A part of her Dh8,000 per month salary is spent for her father’s medicines and the rest for maintaining the family of six. Her siblings too are not well-to-do enough to clear the pending emigration fine or meet their father’s medical expenses.

“We cannot send him back to Pakistan because there is no one there. We have been living here for more than 30 years. I have approached the Pakistan Consulate but it is a long procedure there,” she said.

“It was with the help of a TV show in Sharjah that my father could undergo the first surgery. Now we are helpless again. We don’t have time, please help us to get out of this difficult situation,” she appealed, adding that her father had once received a good character certificate from Dubai Police when he was a taxi driver.

“He returned Dh 50,000 and gold that a passenger had forgotten in his taxi. Dubai Police gave him a certificate for good conduct,”  said Shazia who is approaching chartitable groups with a recommendation letter from the Al Qassimi Hospital.