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Danny Lee

A Tunisian tourist fears losing his sight, having run out of cash to pay medical bills after a brutal, unprovoked attack in Wan Chai.
Gharbi Mohamed, 28, was left blind in one eye after being struck in the face with a beer bottle on October 16. Doctors told him he needed further surgery on the other eye but, with no travel insurance and a HK$58,000 bill for his public-hospital treatment so far, he cannot afford it.
He has rejected the idea of returning to Tunisia, where, he says, medical care is inferior.
"Right now, I feel pain. My head, my eye is hurting. I feel very depressed and distressed," Mohamed said.
"I don't know what's going to happen as every day comes."
The drilling engineer arrived in Hong Kong on September 21 with his younger brother, Omar. They had been due to fly home on October 18 before an ill-fated night out in Wan Chai.
The pair had been drinking with a friend, Omar Chalbi, and were walking along Jaffe Road at about 5.45am when Omar Mohamed and a group of other people bumped into each other in the street. As Gharbi and Chalbi tried to separate Omar from the group of six men and one woman, they were attacked.
A beer bottle was thrown at Gharbi Mohamed, smashing in his face and rupturing his right eyeball. He fell to the ground and lost consciousness. He was taken to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan with a fractured skull and bleeding from the nose and mouth.
A police spokesman confirmed that Mohamed had been attacked by an "unknown male" after "he disputed with several men over [a] bumping affair on the street".
As of yesterday, no one had been arrested.
"I didn't feel threatened or endangered before the attack. If I did, I would have taken precautions," Mohamed said. "If I saw anything abnormal, I would have found a different route home."
After emergency surgery to repair the ruptured eyeball, doctors told Mohamed he should have a non-emergency operation to stem "low risk" deterioration in his left eye. That would have pushed the medical bill to more than HK$100,000.
A Hospital Authority spokesman said that its priority was serving holders of Hong Kong identity cards.
"Nonetheless, the Hospital Authority will offer treatment to non-eligible persons under a 'life-or-limb-threatening' situation," the spokesman said.
"Once their conditions have stabilised, they are expected to seek continual treatment in their homeland or other private facilities in Hong Kong."
Mohamed is appealing for anyone who witnessed the attack or who can identify the attackers to come forward.


Attacked tourist could lose eyesight as medical bills soar out of reach

Gharbi Mohamed was attacked in Wan Chai. Photo: Nora Tam

News

Hong Kong

A Tunisian tourist fears losing his sight, having run out of cash to pay medical bills after a brutal, unprovoked attack in Wan Chai.
