Case Studies Archive

63 year old Mrs Fawzieh Mohammad Abu Imayyer and her 77 year old husband Abed Alhadi Salem Abu Omair live in Beit Awwa, a town in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank, located 22 kilometres west of Hebron and four kilometres west of Dura.

Both Mrs Abu Imayyer and her husband are registered as refugees with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). 

Nine year old Mahmoud Dar Edwan lives in the Qalandia Refugee Camp, 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Jerusalem. 

Established in 1949 by Jordan, the Qalandia Camp covers 87 acres (353 dunums) and has a population of 10,024. 

At the tail end of 2011, a 47 year old patient named Munther Al Dahshan presented at our Gaza Clinic suffering from a squint and failing vision. 

Despite his poor eyesight, Mr Al Dahshan appeared well and intent upon getting married and starting a family.  But he wanted to have his eyes looked at before doing so, and this was the first opportunity he’d had. 

Suffering from gunshot wounds, Mr Al Dahshan has spent more than 29 years in prison, finally being released on 18 October 2011.

Ahmad Rabaia is a three year old boy from Jenin, the largest town in the north of the West Bank, and the third largest city in the occupied territory.

The only son of a young couple in their twenties, Ahmad has inherited his father’s nystagmus, as well as suffering from hypermetropia, or long-sightedness.

Mariam is a 21 years old student from Gaza.  In April 2011, Mariam started feeling pain in her left eye, and she was advised to visit the St. John satellite Clinic in Gaza City. She was found to have a serious infection, a corneal ulcer (microbial keratitis).

Mahmoud and Mustafa Twam are brothers aged 12 and 16.  Both still at school, they live with their parents, a third brother and two sisters in Ramallah.  Mr Twam is a 38 year old driver and 36 year old Mrs Twam is a housewife; they are not related. 

Both Mahmoud and Mustafa have been known to The St John Eye Hospital Group since their infancy.  The eldest, Mustafa, suffers from Vernal Catarrh and  Keratoconus.  12 year old Mahmoud also suffers from Vernal Catarrh. 

Jinna Jamil is an 11 year old patient from the village of Bedia, near Nablus in the northern West Bank. Jinna lives with her parents and her two brothers and one sister.

Mrs Jamil recently brought her daughter to our Outreach Clinic in Bedia because Jinna had been complaining of poor vision in her right eye. Her mother informed us that Jinna had suffered a trauma to her eye when she was four years old, and had been admitted to hospital to undergo corneal laceration repair.

Mrs Ala’ Ibrahim Mansour lives in Qalqilya, the administrative centre of the Qalqilya Governorate.  Bordering the Tulkarm Governorate, where our Anabta Clinic is situated, Qalqilyah is almost completely surrounded by the Israeli Separation Wall. 

Suliman Rastieh is a 13 year-old lad from Jericho. He was brought to one of our Outreach clinics by his parents, who were worried that he seemed to have been losing vision for about six-months.

Mrs Bahijeh Fahim is a 63 year old Palestinian woman from the village of Taybeh, near Ramallah.  With six grown-up, married children, she acts as carerfor her grandchildren.

Mrs Fahim presented at our Outreach Clinic when it visited Taybeh, complaining of cloudy vision.  She had been diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus 15 years earlier.

18 year old Mohammad Abdel Rahman Mousa Amro lives with his mother, Khoulod, three brothers and two sisters in the village of Dura, a small town located eleven kilometers southwest of Hebron in the southern West Bank.

Mohammad suffers from profound developmental delay, autism and microcephaly, a neurodevelopmental disorder in which the circumference of the head is more than two standard deviations smaller than average for the person's age and sex. 

Mr Adel Abu El Rub is a 47 year old Palestinian, living in the Qalandia Refugee Camp between Jerusalem and Ramallah.  He is married with seven children – two boys and five girls aged between 11 and 22.  One of the daughters is married and the other children are at school. Mrs El Rub is 39 years old and in good health, she looks after the family home.

Ahmed Elnajar lives with his parents, two brothers and three sisters in one of the refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, in a small house consisting of two rooms.  His father is unemployed. 

His father became concerned about Ahmed after the boy suffered a stone-throw to the right eye and his vision began to deteriorate. 

Mrs. Aisheh Shamasneh is a 50 year old refugee, currently living in Qatanneh in Ramallah.  A housewife, she is married and has three daughters and eight sons, aged between 14 and 33.  Four of her children are married and four of them are still at school. 

Mr Shamasneh is unemployed and the family depends upon The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for food and medicines, as well as upon assistance from relatives. 

Mr Hisham Thawabteh is a 40 year old man from Beit-Fajar, a village near Bethlehem.  He has five children (three boys and two daughters), four of whom were found to suffer from low visual acuity early in life. His son, Amer, 13 has been seen regularly on Outreach visits to Bethlehem since 2008, when he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa.  This genetic disorder belongs to a group of similar conditions characterized by progressive peripheral vision loss and night vision difficulties that can lead to blindness. 

Fadi Anwar is a ten year old boy from Gaza who lives in a humble house with his parents and three siblings.  Unfortunately, Fadi suffers from congenital disease in both eyes.  His is a very serious and complicated condition that could cause blindness if not treated.

When he was four years old, Fadi’s parents noticed that there was something wrong with his eyes, so they took him to a doctor in Gaza who diagnosed him with Corneal Dystrophy.  Fadi was given glasses, but at his age, it was too risky for him to undergo surgery.

Ayyoub Mohammad from Akabet Jaber, near Jericho, is a ten year old boy in the 4^th grade at school.  He has four brothers and two sisters. His father is a civil servant, and his mother is a housewife.  His parents are first cousins.