By Mohammed Zaatari
SIDON, Lebanon: A crowd of
Lebanese and Palestinians, furious over the death of a woman allegedly denied
adequate treatment, vandalized an United Nations Relief and Works Agency
clinic and pharmacy near the southern city of Tyre Tuesday.
The crowd broke into the clinic,
which is located in the Shabriha Palestinian refugee camp in the Tyre
district, destroying computers and scattering documents. They also smashed
the glass of an UNRWA car parked outside the building.
The crowd was protesting the death
of a Lebanese nurse whom UNRWA allegedly failed to treat.
When contacted by The Daily Star,
UNRWA provided a statement setting forth its version of events. It denies
that the woman had been refused care or that she needed a referral from UNRWA
to go to hospital.
Initial reports indicated that
Nisreen Hussein Krayyem, a Lebanese woman married to a Palestinian man who
was eligible to receive health services from UNRWA, was allegedly denied
admission to the UNRWA clinic Wednesday because it opens only Tuesdays and
Fridays.
Her husband took her to Hiram
hospital in Tyre, but she was refused admission because she did not have a
referral from UNRWA. When he took her back to UNRWA and finally got her
admitted, he was told that she was not in danger.
Far from reassured, Krayyem's
husband took her to Rasul al-Azam hospital in Beirut, where doctors informed
him that she had had several heart attacks and that he should have acted
earlier. Krayyem died Thursday.
According to the UNRWA statement,
"The death was caused by the lack of available respirators in Tyre and
[Sidon] areas when the patient’s case deteriorated."
The statement goes on to say that
by the time UNRWA secured a respirator at Rasul Azam hospital in Beirut and
Krayyem was transported there by ambulance from the Italian hospital in Tyre,
it was too late.
According to the UNRWA statement, the cause of
death is being investigated by Rasul Azam hospital.
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