Yasmine Obeid
Before the Beirut explosion, Yasmine, a young Syrian woman blissfully living in Lebanon with her husband and little boy, was happy, content, and full of life. She would've never imagined that on the 4th of August, 2020, at 6:07 PM, her life would change forever, leaving long-term scars she would carry on throughout her difficult and strenuous healing journey.
Yasmine was in her home in Karantina when the explosion hit the heart of Beirut. She didn't feel the window falling all over her frail body, she only cared about getting her son out of this crazy chaos that has left the capital frantically destroyed.
Yasmine's voice shivers when words come out of her mouth: "I didn't know what happened, but it was horrible"; amidst the destruction, Yasmine could flee with her son and husband on a motorcycle ride to her brother's home in Zokak El-Blat in Beirut, repeating that she couldn't hear anything with her left ear.
Two days later, when she could finally absorb the shock, she started feeling a numbing pain in her back, and she had entirely lost her hearing in her left ear; from then on, her long treatment journey has started.
After a series of medical tests and imaging at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), she found out that she suffers from spinal dislocations and she needs to lay on her back for a minimum of three months while taking her prescribed medications. But this did not happen because her son was still very young, and she had no one to help her except her husband.
Yasmine visited multiple doctors, and until today, she covers her own medical expenses. What makes things worse is that she can't stand on her feet for more than two hours anymore, she feels a pain in her back and she is unable to walk, which makes her home chores and caring for her family quite impossible.
Yasmine wishes she could hear again and hopes she can go back to her normal life so she can forget what happened on that fateful day. She also wants justice served for her sake and that of millions of Lebanese people who deserve to know the truth about those who caused all of this suffering from August 4, 2020, until today.