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LEBANESE WAR WOUNDED

In a hospital in Saida, the shattered lives of two young survivors

After narrowly escaping death and falling into a coma following Israeli bombings on September 23, Fatmeh and Batoum woke to a reality filled with pain, where all their points of reference have vanished.

In a hospital in Saida, the shattered lives of two young survivors

Illustration: Jaimee Lee Haddad/L'Orient Today

"I went to see the dead and came back. I changed my mind; I told myself I still wanted to live a few more years," says Fatmeh, before letting out a small, stifled laugh. The 22-year-old girl from Aitaroun, near Lebanon's southern border, reveals a glimpse of her pretty teeth under her braces, which seem to bother her a little when she speaks. Or maybe it’s the wound caused by the shrapnel that pierced her chest on Sept. 23, blocking her airways and leaving her for dead in front of the stone house in the village of Baraasheet, eight kilometers north of Bint Jbeil, where she had taken refuge with her family since the clashes between Israel and Hezbollah began a year ago. "They declared I was dead. My condition was very serious. The doctors had lost hope. But I still had energy to live," she says from the Labib Medical Center hospital in...
"I went to see the dead and came back. I changed my mind; I told myself I still wanted to live a few more years," says Fatmeh, before letting out a small, stifled laugh. The 22-year-old girl from Aitaroun, near Lebanon's southern border, reveals a glimpse of her pretty teeth under her braces, which seem to bother her a little when she speaks. Or maybe it’s the wound caused by the shrapnel that pierced her chest on Sept. 23, blocking her airways and leaving her for dead in front of the stone house in the village of Baraasheet, eight kilometers north of Bint Jbeil, where she had taken refuge with her family since the clashes between Israel and Hezbollah began a year ago. "They declared I was dead. My condition was very serious. The doctors had lost hope. But I still had energy to live," she says from the Labib Medical Center hospital...