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Palestinian Teen Gets a Leg up From Washingtonians
it’s been six years since 15-year-old Sobhi Subeh stood on two legs.
Six years ago at his home in war-torn Gaza, Sobhi, at the age of 9, was severely injured when a bomb landed on his family’s farm field where he was helping his parents work. Three days passed before Sobhi awoke to find himself in a hospital with only half a left leg. Weeks passed before he got out of bed and started a new life on crutches.
But on Thursday afternoon in a Federal Way clinic, the Palestinian teen with a 100-watt smile stood on two feet again, thanks to a team of Seattle area residents who donated their time and money to bring him to Washington and get him a prosthetic leg.
Full of life
“I don’t like chocolate,” Sobhi said in Arabic as he joked around with one of his peers at Kenmore Junior High School where he has been attending school for a few weeks now. He may be the new kid, but he’s already made a mark for himself as the boy from Gaza with an indomitable spirit.
“He’s a wonderful kid,” Principal Tim Gordon said. “You’re in a suburban school in a suburban school district and you get used to the everyday routine and your normal American school system and then Sobhi comes to your school and it’s a transformative moment. The kids are looking at him and learning his story and it helps the adults put things into perspective.”
Counselor Jim McCausland, who is one of many school staffers who have taken great strides to welcome Sobhi, said he knew right away that Sobhi was a go-getter.
“At first we thought he’d be better served at high school where they have more kids that can speak his language, but he said he didn’t want to be in a comfortable situation because he wanted to learn a new language,” McCausland said. Sobhi had told his host mom, 39-year-old Bothell resident Suzy Baroud, that if he learned English and went back to Gaza he would be like a king.
“It’s a real positive thing for our students to see this kid with such a great spirit,” McCausland said. “Here’s a boy that was caught up in a difficult situation … but is so full of life.”
And Sobhi doesn’t let anything hold him back.
He can juggle a soccer ball, play basketball, ride a bike and climb trees.
“I was working the other day and one of the other counselor’s yelled, ‘Look outside!'” McCausland recalled with a chuckle. “Sobhi was running by on his crutches and by the time I looked out my window he was already gone.”
Sobhi and 14-year-old Kaitlyn Fielder, with whom he shares office T.A. duties with in third period, were scolded Wednesday for racing in the hallway on their way to deliver a hall pass.
“He’s fast,” Fielder said.
From war to Washington
The Gaza Strip, where Sobhi’s parents and eight brothers and sisters currently await his return, has been marred by conflict for nearly 50 years. Gaza was flooded by refugees from Palestine, now called Israel, and the area, densely populated and impoverished, consists of eight large refugee camps.
Residents of Gaza are under extreme political pressure as the Israel-Palestinian conflict continues. More recently, attacks on the Gaza Strip from December 2008 to January 2009 reportedly left hundreds of civilians dead and others severely injured and homeless.
Blockades at Gaza’s borders have made it difficult for people to get supplies. Sobhi said it is difficult for his father to provide for the family when the materials he needs for his farm are over the border. His family has been hit hard the past few years, he said.
This year Sobhi’s family is planting strawberries.
Sobhi arrived in Washington just five weeks ago. Field workers for a non-profit group called Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, which gets medical treatment for Palestinian children in the Middle East, found Sobhi and three other youths in Gaza and made efforts to send them to the United States to receive free medical care. The children are placed in areas where PCRF can find a host family and medical staff that can volunteer 100 percent of their time, services and hospitality.
PCRF found those people here in King County.
In January, when attacks were launched on the Gaza Strip, a small group of people from Bothell, Lynnwood and Seattle rallied to help. They held a number of fundraisers and raised about $30,000 for various organizations, including PCRF. So when it came time for PCRF to find a host for Sobhi, they knew just where to look.
“We knew we had a community in Seattle, so I started searching for a group that could give him a leg for free,” said Steven Sosebee, president and CEO of PCRF. “Once I found someone who agreed, we looked for a host family.”
The group that signed on to help was Preferred Orthotics and Prosthetic Services in Federal Way founded by Fred Cato and Karl Entenmann, both graduates of the University of Washington’s Prosthetic program. Entenmann, a native of Seattle, said he and his team would make the socket to fit over Sobhi’s leg. He then called manufacturers to see if they could donate the other parts for free.
“”I called my friends in different companies and most of the things I would have had to buy were donated, like the knee joint, foot and other walking components,” Entenmann said.
Sobhi’s host mom, Baroud, and her husband, who have three small children of their own, committed to housing and feeding Sobhi for at least seven months as he will need physical therapy for several months after he gets his prosthetic leg. Baroud said PCRF also found a dentist — The Community Dental Clinic in Lynnwood — and pediatrician — Edmonds Family Medicine — to see Sobhi for free. Staff at Evergreen Physical Therapy are also volunteering their services.
New leg
Sobhi waited for his new leg to be made for nearly a month. At first he seemed disappointed when he couldn’t walk out with his leg right away, Baroud said, but Entenmann explained that fitting and shaping a prosthetic limb is a long process. Sobhi’s case was particularly difficult.
“He has a very short residual limb below the knee,” Entenmann said. “Usually they need at least 6 to 8 inches below the knee, but his is only 3 inches, which is very, very short.”
A cast of Sobhi’s leg was taken on his first visit and then Entenmann and his staff spent about 25 man-hours shaping a model socket, seeing Sobhi for fittings and then reworking the piece so it would fit perfectly.
Baroud said when they finally perfected it and allowed Sobhi to put it on for a test run last week, the look on his face was priceless.
“When he walked on it the expression on his face was pure elation,” she recalled. “He said, ‘I feel like I’m walking on my own leg.’ And when he got outside, he was so overwhelmed and even though he doesn’t know very much English, he mustered up everything he knew and said, ‘I love you.'”
Thankful
“I’m so happy. I’m thankful to god and I’m thankful to the team,” Sobhi said after he took his first steps on his new steel leg.
Staff members at the clinic and Baroud and her family members had decorated the room with balloons and put out food to celebrate.
“I’m very, very thankful for the help I’ve gotten and it’s something I will remember for the rest of my life,” Sobhi had said Thursday morning, while at school. He had been surrounded by smiling staff members, friends and his host family, who all showed a genuine interest in his life.
Baroud said she was amazed by how the community and school had stepped up to help. Members at the Arab Center of Washington based in Seattle learned that Sobhi had arrived and began helping to make him feel at home. Becker Tabakha, whose wife works at the center, has been hosting Sobhi on the weekends, taking him to his kid’s soccer games, cooking, watching movies and offering advice on how to adjust to American culture. He also helps to translate for Sobhi when he can.
“It’s a really great thing for him and he’s lucky that he met the host family because they are great people,” said Tabakha, though Sobhi has nicknamed him “The Captain.” “The community here and the people of Washington are really wonderful.”
Sobhi’s schoolmates have also helped him quite a bit. Three students at Kenmore who speak Arabic, including 11-year-old Hanin Ghazal, have helped to translate and all of the office staff have been like motherly figures for him during his third period.
“Even the kids in our neighborhood when they get off the bus, Sobhi’s on crutches, but they all walk together in a group,” Baroud said. “You can really tell these kids are trying to make a point of bringing him in. You know if anyone asked me how to be a better example of a model citizen, I would say you’d have to be principal of Kenmore, one of these students or one of these doctors.”
PCRF said they are trying to do more in the Seattle area, because of the tremendous resources and are always looking for more volunteers to care for their kids. For more information, visit www.pcrf.net.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Last updated 8:55 p.m. PT
Sharon Hong
SeattlePi.com