By Nilay Kar Onum
ISTANBUL
“Are you feeling OK?”
“Pray for me,” answers eight-year-old Kusay, communicating through sign language as he lies in his Istanbul hospital bed.
Suffering from extreme burns, Kusay al-Fariz is just one of thousands of children caught up in the unforgiving conflict in his home country and who have now fled to Turkey.
Kusay cannot see properly, nor can he speak. He can only communicate with the people around him through gesturing.
His condition is harder than most; an energetic and clever boy, Kusay suffers from severe burns to nearly half of his body.
He is totally blind in one eye and can only see by around 40 percent through his other eye. He cannot use his mouth easily as it has been deformed and his ears have just started returning to normal after an inflammation.
What put him in this condition is a bomb attack which hit his family’s apartment in northwestern Idlib city five months ago.
The attack also claimed the life of his ten-year-old sister.
His body language, gestures and signs clearly express what he is trying to say but his father Feriz Sayyid, 40, sitting beside him, speaks on his behalf to Anadolu Agency.
“He has some pain. His biggest problem is that he lost his eyesight. His biggest need is to be able to see properly again. He was also saying that he misses his mother and siblings so much and wants to be able to see them again,” Feriz says.
Kusay's mother and seven siblings are now staying in a camp in Turkey’s southern province of Hatay; they have not seen each other for three months because of the child's treatment needs.
Now, Kusay has only his father with him at the hospital – and it is clear he does not want his parent to be absent, even for a moment.
“He wants to hold my hand when I try to go even a little bit far. He does not want me to leave him here alone, even for a short time,” says Feriz.
According to Kusay’s doctor, the boy’s condition was almost fatal when he first saw him.
“His face had stuck to his chest. He was not able to use his arms,” says Mehmet Bozkurt, an associate professor at the Plastic Surgery Department of Kartal Dr. Lutfi Kirdar Training and Research Hospital.
“He is better right now. His recent surgery was successful but there is a long process ahead of him to recover fully,” Bozkurt adds.
Kusay has undergone two surgeries so far but as his body was badly injured and he needs more operations.
“There should be 20 more surgeries to be able to return [him] to his healthy condition… It means at least two years,” Bozkurt says.
Although Kusay wants to recover as soon as possible and be reunited with his whole family, he also knows that he needs to be resilient in order to reach his dreams.
So, he waits in the hospital bed with the determination of an adult.
“His biggest wish is to be able to ride a bicycle and to play with his friends and siblings again,” his father says.
“As a father, my biggest wish is to see him healthy and to be together with my whole family,” he adds tearfully.
Kusay himself seems very hopeful.
Before leaving the hospital room, we ask: “Kusay, you will recover soon, you know that, right?”
He gives a thumbs-up immediately.
