This is Hassan's story
Hassan was an active, healthy boy who had just begun to explore the world around him when his parents noticed specks appearing in his eyes. Worried, they took him to a nearby hospital where a doctor diagnosed him with an eye infection, prescribing eye drops, which they applied immediately. But it was in vain. A few days later, Hassan's father realised his son was no longer opening his eyes. He gently forced his eyelids open and discovered, to his horror, that there was a hole in one eye and an opaque film over the other.
They rushed him to an eye specialist, who informed them after extensive tests that Hassan's internal body temperature had caused this condition. In the time it had taken for them to find out what was wrong with him, Hassan had already lost one eye and was now in the danger of losing the other one as well. Hassan's parents were devastated – their beautiful baby was looking at a life of blindness. They lost sleep, waking up during the night in panic to check his eye. Poor Hassan's pain was unexplainable.
“We took Hassan to the best hospitals we could afford, but to no avail," says Hassan's father, with sorrow.
“However, we found a ray of hope at Aga Khan University Hospital. There we met Dr Haroon Tayyab, who is God's angel for us – he assured us he would save our son's eye, and he did."
“When Hassan came to me with his father, he could not see anything, walk, recognise faces, or pick up anything from the floor. He could not even shake my hand," says Dr. Haroon. “It was only with timely intervention that we could save his left eye – he was on the verge of losing it too."
“Allah has been kind and made us reach AKUH in time. He can see now, and he walks around the house, picking up things and playing with them," chuckles the teary-eyed father, beaming as he wipes away tears.
Hassan can now explore the world once more, his curious eye roving over everything as he looks towards an independent and fulfilling life. His story got rewritten because of the financial support, donation, and zakat to the Patients' Behbud Society for AKUH (PBS).
