Man Lost His Legs After Bombing Incident

Above: Bomb victim, lost his leg

BAGHDAD, Iraq. Murtada was a man who lives a happy and contented life of being a simple taxi driver yet a proud father and husband to his family. Suddenly life has its way of turning even just the simplest lives to shatter. When people go to war, it seems inevitable for the people’s lives that are surrounded by the grueling war be affected by it, and in this story, I rest my case.

One morning of October that seemed to just the typical morning that he often wakes in, he starts preparing for work, ate his breakfast that his wife fixed up for him and kissed his family goodbye. The usual daily routine in the morning, but how was he to know that the following hours of the day would change his life completely?

While he was driving, a bomb blew off flipping the vehicle over as he saw his legs bleed in raw flesh and blood. His legs had to be amputated up to his upper thigh.

“I lost consciousness for a bit. I knew I was wounded,” Murtada says.

“I was under the car. I saw my legs were severed, just flesh and skin. I was holding my legs, bleeding.”

His wife Shada now carries him around the house as she takes care of him 24/7 that she isn’t able to leave their home since she can’t leave her husband alone as the situation leads her to give her husband consistent care.

“I look at him like a baby, with the needs of a baby,” she says. “Nobody but me can help him. I cannot go to the markets because of him. I am asking people for help because I cannot leave him alone in the house.” says the wife.

Shada wants to work for her family but she can’t leave the house as she is always worried for her husband. She explains, “I want to work, but I can’t really because then who will stay with my husband?” she says. “Who will take him to the bathroom? My first concern every morning is my husband.”.

Murtada on the other hand worries as he used to provide for his family and all the sudden it changes. He is in constantly bothered on the welfare of his family especially his son. Murtada admits that he faces his darkest hours in this situation, “I was thinking, ‘Is this really going to be my life?’ And then I was thinking about my son and how I can’t provide for him, and then I began thinking about poisoning myself.”

The family lives in Shiite neighborhood in Western Baghdad and had encountered a lot of trials in effect of conflict and war. Shada’s brother was killed (shot dead) and her father died due to poor health care.

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