Too much excitement? The people of the village of Arab el-Ayayida near el-Khanka in Qaliubia Governorate are mourning the loss of one of their sons, who died on his wedding night. It was high blood pressure that killed him, brought on by the sexual stimulants he'd taken. Ayman Abdel-Mohssen, was rushed to el-Khanka General Hospital when he was taken ill, but it was too late. The deceased had been taking Viagra and Tramadol before he fell asleep and never woke up. In fact, Tramadol, an opioid, is an analgesic rather than a sexual stimulant. He's unclear whether he and his wife consummated their marriage before the pills kicked in. (Al-Wafd) A rat in the flat A driver paid dearly when he tried to kill a rat. Mohamed Ahmed (48) spotted one of these furry rodents scuttling across the floor of his fourth-floor flat in el-Zaqaziq, Sharqia Governorate. He chased it onto the balcony and caught up with it just as he reached the edge. His momentum took him over the balcony wall and he plunged to his death in the street below. (Al-Akhbar) The last station Meanwhile, another man plunged to his death in quite different circumstances. The deceased was being questioned by detectives in el-Omraniya Police Station about a theft. During the questioning, he managed to give them the slip and run up the stairs and onto the roof. Some conscripts ran after him and he fell off the roof of the building to his death. The unnamed man was suspected of robbing a judge. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) Murder most fowl El-Ismailia Criminal Court has sentenced to death a mechanic called Magdi Ahmed for killing a civil servant and his wife. It was last August that the couple were shot dead and two other people, one of them a 27-year-old man called Mohamed Othman, the son of the civil servant's sister, were shot and injured during an argument with Magdi. The problems started when a chicken belonging to 58-year-old Mohamed Abdel-Aziz flew from the roof of the building he and his wife lived in onto the roof of a neighbouring building, where the condemned lived. Magdi thought it would make a tasty dinner and started shooting at Mohamed and his relatives when they went round to get it back. (Al-Gomhuria) Keep up the good work Although there is a lot of concern and anger about the fact that fewer poor people are getting free medical treatment these days, we shouldn't overlook the fact that there are still success stories happening all the time. One of them involves a little baby who underwent a remarkable operation at the Crescent Health Insurance Hospital in Sohag. Six-month-old Iman Mohamed, whose family live on Mahrous Island near Akhmim, was born paralysed, because her spinal cord was damaged in the process of her mother giving birth. Dr Salah el-Maghrabi, Health Insurance Director for Sohag Governorate, said that Iman's right arm and shoulder were totally paralysed. The team of doctors who repaired the nerves in her shoulder were led by Professor Ahmed Dessouqi of the Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University and a noted nerve specialist, and Professor of Anaesthesiology Khaled Hassan, together with Drs Yasser Abdel-Shokour and Moustafa Hussein. The technical details are beyond the scope of this column, but, suffice it to say, after an operation lasting 12 hours, little Iman can now move her right arm. Meanwhile, the same medical team are planning to perform similar operations on 12 other children with nerve damage, one operation per fortnight. Keep up the good work! (Al-Ahram) An appealing appeal The Aswan Workers' Appeal Court has ordered the Aswan Potable Water and Sewage Company to pay an appealing LE100,000 (One dollar = LE5.50) in compensation to the family of one of its members of staff who died while fixing a drain belonging to the company. Three members of staff had been asked to go down into the drain and fix the problem. They all died, overcome by fumes, and one of them decided to sue the company for compensation. The Court of First Instance awarded them LE40,000, but they appealed. They wanted more, because the company had done nothing to protect the workers from the hazards of the job, such as being exposed to gases. In substantially increasing the compensation, the Appeal Court also advised the Aswan Potable Water and Sewage Company to improve the safety of its workers. Sometimes it's worth appealing. (Akhbar el-Youm) Tasty cake A young woman tried to smuggle a cake with drugs and a mobile phone inside to her brother, serving a ten-year sentence in Tora Farm Prison. The teenager was caught when she worked through the electronic gate and the buzzer went off. Officers examined the cake and found three lumps of hashish and 200 hallucinogenic pills inside, as well as the freecell. The suspect, who has been released on bail of LE500, claimed that a man she didn't know had asked her to take the cake into the prison and give it to a relative of his. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) Several suicides No fewer than three suicides were reported in one local newspaper on the same day. In the first incident, an ironing man committed suicide by hanging himself. A previous suicide bid, which involved him slashing his wrists with a razor, had failed. Ibrahim Mohamed (39) was found hanging by his wife, Amira Abdel-Sattar (24), in their home in Boulaq el-Daqrour. Amira cut the electric flex around his neck, but it was too late. The time he'd slashed his wrists, she and his brothers and sisters saved. The reason why he decided to end it all was the classic one in Egypt ��" lack of money. Meanwhile, a retired civil servant took his life in the Qobari district of Minya el-Bassel, western Alexandria. Ahmed Kamel (61) hanged himself with some rope in the bathroom in his flat. His family said that Ahmed was suffering from depression and that he'd been receiving treatment for this at Ma'moura Psychiatric Hospital. It would seem that the reason why he killed himself is quite clear; nevertheless the Prosecution is investigating the incident. After financial problems, depression seems to be the second most common cause of suicide in Egypt. Often, both causes are involved. Finally, a teenage girl in Sohag Governorate jumped from the fourth floor of the technical secondary school where she was a pupil. Doaa (18) died of her injuries in Akhmeem Central Hospital. Her suicide was witnessed by the whole school, who were in the playground for morning assembly, when she stepped out of line, ran up the stairs and plunged to her death. Doaa decided to kill herself because she was having problems with her fiancé. (Al-Messa) Vicious vaccine The parents of a little girl from Denshewai near el-Shohadaa' in Menoufia Governorate have filed a complaint against the doctor at the local health unit. They have accused him of giving Habiba Mohamed (now aged three) an overdose of a vaccine to protect their daughter against polio, when she was 18 months old. After being inoculated in September 2008, Habiba was taken home by her mother. No sooner had they entered their flat then her daughter became very hot and feverish and started having spasms. Habiba's mother rushed her back to the health unit, where the doctor said that she had had a stroke. The inoculation has left her almost blind. (Al-Ahram) Life is hard Life is hard for Amm Mohamed, a shoeblack who works outside el-Hussein Mosque in Islamic Cairo. Amm Mohamed is 62 years old, but looks older. At night, he sleeps on the pavement next to the mosque. He's ill, but there's nothing he can do about that. "I was born in Minya Governorate. When I was five years old I started working in a bakery, because there was no-one to provide for me. I stayed there for 20 years then came up to Cairo. I dreamt of bettering myself, but the only job I could find was cleaning shoes in el-Hussein," he says. "I met a nice young lady and we got married. I did this because I wanted a wife and children to look after me when I got old and could no longer work. We were very happy together and my wife bore me a little boy, Gamil. But our happiness didn't last long, because he got sick and died. "My wife then died of grief and there I was on my own. Shortly after that, I developed heart problems and a detached retina in one of my eyes. Life is very hard for me. One of the problems is that few people want to have their shoes polished these days. "Often I only earn LE2 per day [less than $1]. There's no-one depending on me anymore and I don't want anything from anyone," he says, proudly. In fact there is just one thing that Amm Mohamed does want ��" to die peacefully where he works, outside el-Hussein Mosque. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) Courageous cop in cardiac crisis A police NCO who works for the Cairo Traffic Administration saved the life of a doctor who works for the Higher Studies Centre in Ain Shams University. Ayyad Talaat was on duty in Midan el-Tahrir, near the Egyptian Museum, directing traffic, when he spotted one car moving erratically. The vehicle stopped near the Mervat Hotel and Ayyad courageously ran over to it. The driver, a woman, was slumped over the steering wheel. He dragged her out of the car and carried her to a nearby chemist's where the pharmacist, realising she'd had a heart attack, gave her an injection which brought her round. Ayyad took her back to her car and she was able to drive off. The grateful doctor, Amal Khalil, contacted Minister of Interior Habib el-Adly, thanking him and the policeman who saved her life. The Minister has given instructions for Ayyad to be given a financial reward for his selfless deed. Dr Amal had tried to give him some money then and there in Midan el-Tahrir, but he had refused. (Al-Akhbar)
