The Story of Saif Abu Warda

The Story of Saif Abu Warda
“Saif Abu Warda: 28 Days Battling Guillain-Barré Syndrome”
On a white hospital bed in the intensive care unit lies a motionless child. His limbs are paralyzed — except for his left hand, which he can still move slightly. His chest rises and falls slowly, his breathing sustained by a ventilator that has accompanied him for twenty-eight days.
Silent tears stream down the face of six-year-old Saif Abu Warda, who is suffering from Guillain-Barré Syndrome. On this day, his mother was late arriving at the hospital at her usual time to bring him food. Not knowing why, the little boy — too young to understand delays or explanations — had only his tears to express his hunger, occasionally lifting his left hand to point weakly toward his mouth.
The nurse understood what the child was asking for, but with the worsening famine in Gaza and the severe shortages of medicine and food, the hospital could only provide care and services within its limited capacity. Families were responsible for bringing food for their patients.
For 28 days, the child has lain in the intensive care unit of Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, breathing through a ventilator. The illness has caused paralysis in his right arm and left leg, along with a complete loss of muscle tone, making his response to treatment slow and recovery far more difficult compared to other conditions.
His mother did not take long to arrive. As soon as she entered, she wiped her son’s tears and began feeding him blended food through a syringe connected to a tube in his body. Although the little boy gestured for his mother to feed him by mouth, his condition did not allow it — he had undergone a surgical procedure to open a breathing passage in his neck.
A Late Arrival
Under heavy artillery fire and the buzzing of Israeli drones (quadcopters), Abu Warda — the mother — left her home in the Jabalia al-Nazla area, north of Gaza City, which has been under continuous bombardment, and made her way toward the hospital.
While feeding her child, she told Palestine Online: “It was extremely dangerous to move. On my way, I saw many martyrs lying on the road. The shelling was intense, but I passed through the explosions for the sake of my child.”
In addition to the perilous journey, Abu Warda had to wait for the solar panels to generate enough power to blend food for her son — a delay that cost her precious time. Even obtaining the food itself was no easy task for the family, amid severe shortages and skyrocketing prices. Feeding a malnourished child had become a daily struggle of survival.
About a month ago, the child had been perfectly healthy, living his days like any other child. But one night, after going to sleep, he woke up with a high fever, severe headache, and dizziness. He collapsed to the ground, struggling to breathe. After being rushed to the hospital, he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome