The Syrian-born Ahmed’s life-saving actions drawn global admiration, but the pain and trauma are starting to take a heavy toll. Initial reports stated he had been shot twice, but new details have now emerged.
Al-Ahmed’s injuries are severe
Al-Ahmed’s injuries are far more serious than initially reported. He was shot in the shoulder, arm, and hand and has undergone multiple surgeries, with at least one bullet still lodged in his back.
“At this stage, he says he has no feeling in his arm,” his former migration lawyer Sam Issa told the Daily Mail.
“I’m no medical doctor, but he said to me that it seems like one of the bullets may have hit a nerve. The pain has started to take a toll on him. He’s not well at all. He’s riddled with bullets. Our hero is struggling at the moment.”
There are growing fears he could lose his arm due to nerve damage. Yet from his hospital bed, Al-Ahmed sent a message of faith and hope:
“Through Allah, I went through a very difficult phase, only Allah knows it. I ask my mother, the apple of my eye, to pray for me. Pray for me, my mother. God willing, it will be a minor injury,” he told TRT World in Arabic.
A hero’s courage
Before confronting the gunman, Al-Ahmed warned his cousin of the danger:
His cousin Mustafa al-Assad said Al-Ahmed couldn’t stand by: “When he saw this scene, people dying of gunfire, he told me, ‘I couldn’t bear this. God gave me strength. I believe I’m going to stop this person killing people.’”
Al-Ahmed’s father, Muhammad Fateh al-Ahmed, highlighted his son’s lifelong instinct to protect others: “My son is a hero. He served with the police and in the central security forces, and he has the impulse to protect people.”
His mother, Malakeh Hasan al-Ahmed, was overwhelmed upon realizing her son was the man in the viral video:
“I’m proud that my son was helping people. He saved lives, souls. God would not harm him because he was a do-gooder,” she said.
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