CBS News
Wounded Gaza boy who survived Israeli airstrike undergoes surgery in U.S.
New York City — At New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport last month, Elissa Montanti waited patiently for a flight coming in from Cairo carrying 5-year-old Omar Abukwaik. Montanti, founder and director of the Global Medical Relief Fund, had to cut through red tape to get Abukwaik to the U.S. — a frightened boy in desperate need of medical care.
Abukwaik’s aunt, who accompanied him on his trip, told CBS News that the boy’s parents, brother, sister and grandparents were all killed by an Israeli airstrike on their Gaza home in December. Abukwaik suffered severe injuries, including leg wounds and the amputation of his left arm.
Montanti told CBS News she had reached out to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which in turn referred her to the humanitarian organization Rahma Worldwide, which identified Abukwaik as a boy who needed help.
He is now staying at a temporary home on Staten Island run by Montanti’s charity. Far from the reality of the Israel-Hamas war, Abukwaik visited the Staten Island Children’s Museum, a momentary escape where he could be a child again.
“These are innocent children that have absolutely no resources, or very, very little,” Montanti said. “And the 60 countries we have helped are all of these children from war-torn and natural disasters.”
The Global Medical Relief Fund has partnered with Shriners Children’s Philadelphia, where Abukwaik’s injuries were evaluated by Dr. Scott Kozin, chief of staff for the hospital.
“The fact that Omar was able to be brought here is good for Omar, and it’s good for his outlook,” Kozin said. “If he stayed in Gaza or stayed in Egypt, who knows, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”
On Jan. 31, Kozin performed surgery to repair a wound on Abukwaik’s leg.
“So we want to get rid of this bad scar, and replace with normal skin graft,’ Kozin explained during the procedure.
Doctors also begin the process of fitting Abukwaik for a prosthetic arm. His recovery is expected to take several weeks. After that, he will return to a tent camp in Gaza with his aunt.
As he grows older, the Global Medical Relief Fund will assist Omar in returning to the U.S. for continued medical treatment.
CBS News
Chinese trans woman awarded thousands over forced electroshock “conversion therapy” hopes for change
A transgender woman in China who recently won 60,000 yuan (roughly $8,300) in compensation from a hospital that forced her to undergo several rounds of electroshock “conversion therapy” has told CBS News that she hopes her experience will herald change for the LGBTQ+ community in her country.
“I hope that the transgender community will soon have safeguard measures and basic human rights, and will no longer be victimized by medical treatment,” said the 28-year-old performance artist who goes by the pseudonym Ling’er.
Ling’er
Ling’er was admitted to a hospital about a year after coming out to her parents as transgender, she previously told the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper. She said in that interview that her parents were “very opposed” to her gender identity and “felt that I wasn’t mentally stable. So they sent me to a mental hospital.”
In the hospital, Ling’er was diagnosed with an “anxiety disorder and discordant sexual orientation,” she told the Guardian. She said she was held for 97 days and subjected to seven sessions of electroshock treatment.
“It caused serious damage to my body,” Ling’er said. “Every time I underwent the treatment, I would faint… I didn’t agree to it, but I had no choice.”
Ling’er said the electric shocks caused her to develop heart problems, which she now requires medication to treat.
The hospital “tried to ‘correct me’, to make me conform to society’s expectations,” Ling’er told the Guardian.
The hospital declined to comment when approached by the Guardian.
There is a legal ambiguity surrounding so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ people in China. The government removed homosexuality from an official list of psychiatric disorders in 2001, but a diagnosis for distress about sexual orientation remained on the books until recently.
A 2017 Human Rights Watch report urged the Chinese government to prevent hospitals and other medical facilities from subjecting LGBTQ people to conversion therapies. HRW said many victims of these therapies in China were forcibly brought to hospitals by their families.
“I feel good, I won my case,” Ling’er told CBS News. “I hope that my case will be useful for transgender cases in China.”
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Chinese trans woman awarded thousands over forced electroshock “conversion therapy” hopes for change
Retail credit card interest rates hit all-time high
Menendez Brothers to appear in court in hearing that could bring them closer to release
Chinese trans woman awarded thousands over forced electroshock “conversion therapy” hopes for change
Retail credit card interest rates hit all-time high