A Man Died Because Nobody Took "Hemophilia" Seriously. I Live in the Same Country. That's Why I'm Asking You for Help.
A Man Just Died in Syria Because Police Didn't Take "Hemophilia" Seriously. I've Been Living That Reality My Whole Life.
On August 16, 2026, a 29-year-old Syrian man named Mohammad Ghamira — a former White Helmets volunteer — was taken into police custody over a financial dispute. His family told the officers immediately: he has hemophilia, please don't hit him. A beating that would leave anyone else with a bruise can cause someone with hemophilia to bleed internally until it kills them.
They told them. It didn't matter. Three days later he was dead — a brain hemorrhage, internal bleeding, his heart stopping three times before he slipped into a coma he never woke up from.
I read that story and felt something a lot of people can't understand: recognition. Because I am hemophiliac too, and I have lived my entire life in Syria.
I'm not writing this to compare my suffering to a man who died. I'm writing it because his death is the most extreme version of something I've faced every day, in smaller, quieter ways, since I was a child — a country where almost nobody, not teachers, not doctors, not police, not employers, actually understands what hemophilia is or what it costs a person to have it.
I grew up unable to play sports, unable to safely get routine dental work, watching a simple ear/sinus infection turn into a years-long crisis because I couldn't have a basic operation without risking a bleed. Factor VIII — the treatment that keeps people like me alive — has been inconsistently available for most of my life, and doctors here often don't know how to treat me. I finished my law degree in 2019, but hemophilia and COVID delayed my bar admission until 2021 — two years erased by a body I didn't choose and a system that wasn't built for it.
That's the reality Mohammad Ghamira died from, in a much crueler form than mine. Ignorance about this disease doesn't just mean bad treatment. In this country, it can be the difference between someone with a chronic illness struggling — and someone with a chronic illness dying in a police station.
Here's what I'm trying to do about it. I'm a human rights lawyer in Syria, and I want to study International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law abroad — specifically to work on legal protections for people with chronic illness and disability, the kind of "invisible" discrimination that let a man die of a beating three days after his family warned the police exactly what would happen. I'm raising funds to cover the cost of the Duolingo English Test, the next concrete step toward applying to graduate programs.
I'm not asking anyone to fix Syria's healthcare system today. I'm asking for help covering the cost of one exam that gets me one step closer to being able to actually do something about it — from a place where I have the tools, safety, and platform to do that work properly.
If you can spare even a small amount, it genuinely matters. If you can't, sharing this costs nothing and helps just as much.
👉 Support here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mohamadlabl/my-story-2910300
The Ghamira case, covered in English:
Al Jazeera — Syria launches probe into death of 'White Helmet' rescuer in police custody
The Media Line — Death of Mohammed Ghumaira After Detention Revives Torture Concerns in Syria
Enab Baladi — Muhammad Ghamira Case: 72-Hour Probe, Transparency Calls
AP (via WSLS) — A detainee's death revives Syria's memories of torture and abuse in prisons
My own story, in full:
World Federation of Hemophilia — My Story: Mohamad Abdulkader Lababidi