From the diary of a member of 57357 staff: “I was startled by a resonating sound of joy (Zaghared) in 57357’s Hall announcing Basmallah’s recovery from cancer”

  As a long workday at 57357 was about to finally end, I heard  a strident sound of joy resonating in the Hospital entrance hall. I turned around to look for its source. I saw a jovial face and eyes full of hope, gratefulness and happiness. It was the face of a middle-aged mother, dressed in the traditional long black dress ,with her young daughter giggling  beside her.

“Thanks be to God, my daughter Basmallah has been cured. I had absolutely no hope that one day my daughter  would be cured. Today, my life is starting again”,  the mother said with tears in her eyes while hugging her daughter.

Basmallah is a 7 year old girl, who  was admitted to  57357 in May 2010 to receive medical care for leukemia.” Today, after a 3 year treatment journey, Basmallah is officially recorded as one of the victorious cases over cancer, reveals her treating physician, Dr Lobna Shalaby.

“Distressed, depressed and hopeless, I accompanied my daughter everyday  to 57357 to receive the treatment. But soon enough, all these bad feelings were fading away as I witnessed the quality care my daughter  was receiving as well as watching her health improve day by day”, exclaimed Basmallah’s mother.

Throughout the treatment’s journey, they went through many ordeals together. As a child, it was very difficult for her to experience her hair falling out 3 times. She also went through severe physical pain, but as her mother explained, the wonderful medical and psychological care and support from all the Hospital staff made the load much easier to carry. “At one point,57357 social workers even managed to secure  us transportation costs from Alexandria as the family was going through financial crisis”, reveals Basmallah’s mother.

Basmallah is living in Alexandria, which is 220 km away from Cairo, and she had to come to Hospital 3 times a week.  “Thanks to the wonderful care and support we received, Basmallah and I felt very much at home at 57357″, says her mother.” They even celebrated my daughter’s 3 birthdays, with the third one falling  during the Hospital’s commemoration of five years of operation.. Everyone, happily took part in her birthday party – physicians, patients and her hospital friends with cancer” she added.

“I am so happy to be cured, to return to my school and to my favorite sport karate. I hope to become Egypt’s Karate champion.  I pray for my friends here that they may be healed like me.  The person I will miss most  is the receptionist, Ms Enas”,  says Basmallah.

Like a fairytale happy ending, Basmallah’s story also ends on a happy note: she is to flysoon  to Qatar to be with her father who works there, and her family will be reunited again. However, the Hospital’s role is not over yet; through email, her treating physician, Dr Lobna Shalaby will continue to closely follow up her case.