VIDEO: Lives of 125 Syrian kidney failure patients in Jordan threatened after funding cut for life-saving dialysis treatment

Omar Diab’s kidneys are failing him.

The 46-year-old Syrian refugee—too frail to walk without a cane or a family member helping him—requires weekly dialysis treatments in order to stay alive. Toxic fluid has built up in his body, making almost every aspect of his daily routine a painful chore.

But for Diab and 124 other Syrian refugees suffering from kidney failure in Amman, Jordan, the life-saving dialysis treatment they require could be unavailable as soon as next week, a representative from the Syrian-American Medical Society (SAMS) told Syria Direct, after international funding for their treatment was cut abruptly at the beginning of April.

Dialysis treatment acts as an artificial kidney, removing built-up waste liquids from a patient’s body over the course of several three- to five-hour sessions per week.

Without their twice-weekly dialysis treatments—already cut back from the doctor-recommended three times a week due to a different funding cut earlier this year—the 125 Syrians supported by SAMS could enter a coma and die within weeks, doctors warn.

Syria Direct visited Omar and Aisha—another kidney failure patient in Amman—in their homes and at the hospital last week as they and their families grappled with the prospect of losing the medical support they require to stay alive.

Video by Sira Therij.