Crowd Vandalizes UNRWA Clinic After Death of Woman Allegedly Denied Care

According to the UNRWA statement, the cause of death is being investigated by Rasul Azam hospital.

Palestinian Walaa Sleiman carries a picture of her mother Nisrine Hussein Krayyem, a Lebanese nurse who died after she was denied adequate treatment at the UNRWA clinic at the Shabriha Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012. (The Daily Star/Mohammed Zaatari)

(SIDON, Lebanon Daily Star) - A crowd of Lebanese and Palestinians, furious over the death of a woman allegedly denied adequate treatment, vandalized an United Nations Relief and Works Agency clinic and pharmacy near the southern city of Tyre Tuesday.

The crowd broke into the clinic, which is located in the Shabriha Palestinian refugee camp in the Tyre district, destroying computers and scattering documents. They also smashed the glass of an UNRWA car parked outside the building.

The crowd was protesting the death of a Lebanese nurse whom UNRWA allegedly failed to treat.

When contacted by The Daily Star, UNRWA provided a statement setting forth its version of events. It denies that the woman had been refused care or that she needed a referral from UNRWA to go to hospital.

Initial reports indicated that Nisreen Hussein Krayyem, a Lebanese woman married to a Palestinian man who was eligible to receive health services from UNRWA, was allegedly denied admission to the UNRWA clinic Wednesday because it opens only Tuesdays and Fridays.

Her husband took her to Hiram hospital in Tyre, but she was refused admission because she did not have a referral from UNRWA. When he took her back to UNRWA and finally got her admitted, he was told that she was not in danger.

Far from reassured, Krayyem's husband took her to Rasul al-Azam hospital in Beirut, where doctors informed him that she had had several heart attacks and that he should have acted earlier. Krayyem died Thursday.

According to the UNRWA statement, "The death was caused by the lack of available respirators in Tyre and [Sidon] areas when the patient’s case deteriorated."

The statement goes on to say that by the time UNRWA secured a respirator at Rasul Azam hospital in Beirut and Krayyem was transported there by ambulance from the Italian hospital in Tyre, it was too late.

According to the UNRWA statement, the cause of death is being investigated by Rasul Azam hospital.

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