There's no escape It was a technical fault in the locomotive that caused a prison train travelling from Aswan to Cairo to break down between Kafr Shehata and the village of el-Metania, near el-Ayyat, about 30 miles south of Cairo, a place notorious for rail tragedies. The offending locomotive was uncoupled and towed away to be fixed, while another from nearby el-Ayyat was used to shunt the train to the capital. Other train services were unaffected by this thankfully very minor incident, which was only a tragedy for the 151 convicts on board, who were disappointed that the mishap didn't afford them a chance to escape. (Al-Gomhuria) Shaimaa's story Shaimaa Mahmoud, a 21-year-old student in the Faculty of Commerce, suffered a triple blow when a famous professor of skin diseases operated on her at a downtown Cairo hospital. When she emerged from the operating theatre and came round, she discovered her right leg next to her on the bed, in a plastic bag. The second shock was when her fiancé and his mother came to see her in hospital after the operation. "My son is never going to marry a legless cripple," said the mother. Thirdly, she's not been allowed to sit her university exams, because she didn't register on time, as she was still recovering from the first two shocks. Shaimaa, who also has diabetes and now has a wooden leg, lives with her family in Imbaba, a district of northern Giza. It was two years ago, in the summer of 2008 that a spot appeared on her right leg. She thought it was a mosquito bite, but when it didn't disappear she went to a skin specialist in Imbaba. He told her it was nothing to worry about, just a small swelling caused by the hot weather. The doctor prescribed her some antibiotics and other medicines. But it didn't clear up, so Shaimaa went back to the clinic in Imbaba, where the doctor referred her to another specialist, the professor in downtown. So, she went to the second specialist who also told her there was nothing to worry about, but to come back anyway in a couple of months for a check-up. In the meantime, the spot kept getting bigger. She went back to the professor, who prescribed her some unguents and medicines. This time, he told her to come back in three months' time. She returned as he said and he gave her 12 doses of cortisone to be injected to control the inflammation. By the time she'd had three of the injections, the wound had turned black and she realised it was a tumour. It was now causing her a lot of pain and she was admitted to hospital on May 9 last year. She was referred to the Skin Diseases Department at Al-Qasr Al-Aini Hospital. She had to wait three days for a doctor to see her. He wasn't a specialist and only gave her another cortisone injection. She was now in terrible pain. Twelve days later, she was referred to a blood vessel specialist, who told Shaimaa that the wound had turned gangrenous. She was wheeled into the operating theatre to have the wound cleaned. When she was wheeled out, she discovered that the same professor had removed some of the muscle and veins from her leg. The professor then told her that the operation had gone wrong and that she needed a second one. It was during the second one that Shaimaa's leg was amputated. She stayed in hospital until November 26 last year. She wanted to see the professor, but he'd issued instructions to his subordinates ��" other doctors and nurses ��" not to admit her to his office. Her father filed a complaint against the professor with the Old Cairo Prosecutor. Last March, the Prosecutor ruled that investigations into the complaint would be reopened. Let's hope that this young, pretty, bright woman can at least get some reasonable compensation after all that she has suffered. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) A bit of e-abuse A court in Bab el-Shaaria has sentenced the Chairman of the Legal Research Centre (LRC) to two months in prison, as well as fining him LE5,000, on two charges: insulting another person and abusing means of communication. The 44-year-old Chairman sent pornographic pictures and insulting messages to a 30-year-old woman who works for another centre, owned by the husband of his wife's sister. The problems started when the Chairman's brother-in-law agreed with the 30-year-old woman, in the light of the fierce competition between the two centres, to go to the LRC and pretend that she was a student in the Faculty of Law interested in getting some work experience with the centre. She was taken on board and managed to get hold of a copy of the LRC's International Arbitration Training Programme. She then returned to her own company and gave it to the Chairman's brother-in-law, who sold it to other institutions, more cheaply than the LRC was offering it for sale. The angry Chairman got his own back with a bit of ‘e-abuse'. (Al-Akhbar) Gambling his life away A worker was killed by his friend in an argument over LE20 while they were gambling together in el-Zaqaziq, Sharqia Governorate. The pair started fighting in what is known as the Zahrat el-Nahal Tower Block district of el-Zaqaziq. The victim was named as Waguih Ahmed, a 35-year-old worker; he'd been stabbed to death. His killer was named as unemployed Mohamed Saber (24). As they argued over the twenty pounds, Waguih threw a glass of tea at his friend. This further enraged him. Mohamed whipped out his knife and dispatched his pal. (Al-Ahrar) Dozens of cousins Last month, two young women, twins, disappeared from their home in Qous in Qena Governorate, Upper Egypt. They have now turned up in 6th October Governorate. They pretended they had been kidnapped and their kidnapper wanted LE200,000 for their safe return. The two teenage sisters had fallen in love with two of their maternal cousins, but their 50-year-old father, who has a good job abroad, working in an electricity company in Kuwait, had refused to let his daughters marry them, because it would have meant their descending a rung or two on the social and financial ladder. The 17-year-old twins and the cousins they love travelled from Assiut to 6th October City, where they got a friend of theirs, a salesman with a criminal record, in whose flat they stayed, to ring their father and tell him that he'd kidnapped their daughters, demanding the ransom. The idea was for the sisters to use the money so they could marry their cousins. The five suspects ��" the four cousins and their friend ��" were arrested when police raided the flat. Upper Egyptians love children and often have very big families. If the two girls, Rabab and Rehab, do eventually marry their relatives, they'll probably end up having dozens of cousins. (Al-Ahram, Al-Masry Al-Youm and Al-Wafd) Welcome home Thieves stole four pairs of rare birds from a pigeon fancier in el-Nozha, northern Heliopolis. A friend of the thieves told them that each of the male pigeons was worth a lot of money ��" LE20,000! ��" and gave them the name of a man who'd probably be interested in buying them. They took the pigeons to the prospective purchaser, who got a surprise when he realised that the eight birds were his own that had been stolen. The thieves have been arrested. (Akhbar Al-Youm) Transport transgressors A recent crackdown on misbehaviour on the Greater Cairo Underground and also the railway network was surprisingly successful, with Transport and Communications Police arresting 40 hawkers, three people in possession of drugs, one man with a knife, two thieves, 11 people on the run from the law and 31 more for causing disturbances. They also arrested 180 young men caught travelling in the ladies' carriages on the Tube, 147 people for traffic violations (such as parking on level crossings[!]) and 119 people for crossing the railway line at other than the designated crossings. Finally, over 1,800 rail and Tube users were arrested for smoking, littering or travelling without a ticket. (Al-Ahrar) Very displeased Taxi drivers often display their displeasure when they claim they haven't been paid enough, but imagine a taxi driver killing someone for not using his taxi! This is what happened in Komombo, Aswan Governorate, where a 22-year-old driver called Ghandour Abdel-Azeem knifed a 43-year-old farmer called Hamid Ali, who died of his injuries shortly afterwards in Komombo General Hospital. On the afternoon of the day he died, Abdel-Azeem was at Kombobo Bus Station, wanting to get a taxi to a wedding party in the village of Aqleet. Ghandour was driving his shared taxi there and only needed one more passenger. The farmer told him the taxi was too full and he'd wait for the next one. Ghandour started arguing with him and two other drivers stepped in to break it up. But Ghandour was still angry. That night, he caught up with Abdel-Azeem in Aqleet and fatally stabbed him. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) E-mail: [email protected]
