The story goes as follows. A little Syrian girl from a refugee family in Jordan needed very complex and delicate craniofacial surgery. In Jordan, after the necessary assessment, the doctors did not dare perform such a complex operation. Then, in March 2016, the search began for a hospital and doctors who would accept this young patient. Contact was made with six European hospitals that might perform the operation but none of them would do so free of charge. That is when Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona stepped forward and agreed to it wholeheartedly.
The second part of the story began when confronting the departure of the family to Spain. The little girl and her mother were able to obtain visas but not her father or her three siblings. At that point, the Office of the Ombudsman, which had been informed of the story, asked the Spanish Embassy in Jordan for help to provide the whole family with visas. On 13 July the family arrived in Barcelona, via Madrid, as other European capitals did not even allow them transit. In Barcelona, Cáritas and the Jubert Figueras Foundation took charge of them with the collaboration of Barcelona City Council.
This is a story, just one, of a family of Syrian refugees who underwent the distress of having to leave their country and do so with a child in a very dramatic situation. A large number of people played a part in helping the family reach their destination, but nothing would have been accomplished had San Juan de Dios Hospital not offered to perform the operation.
Probably neither the Order of San Juan de Dios nor the hospital will tell this story which, thanks to a US law firm and another Spanish firm, has mobilised so many people; which has called for the opinion of medical specialists from various countries, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees, the Spanish Embassy …and many others. From the Office of the Ombudsman we would like to thank all the people who have showed concern for this little Syrian girl, the doctors, and in particular the Order of San Juan de Dios. And hope that their generosity will be rewarded with the success of the operation.
So far, the outcome of the operation has been satisfactory, although the little patient will need a second operation, in due course.
