SABAH (92)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

In such conditions, the news of escape of Bani Sadr disguised in female clothes together with Masoud Rajavi on the seventh day of second month of summer of 1360 (1981) made big talks in the country. I do not remember where I heard this news but I remember well that I was so happy with this news that I wanted to scream. Hearing that a bad luck such as Bani Sadr from the country was not a little thing.

SABAH (91)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Mr. Ghorbani was attending to the martyr. He tried to find specifications on them and looked into their pockets. If he found an ID, he wrote down and if there was any specific item with the martyr, he placed it in a plastic bag and kept it to be handed over to their families. At the end, he sent them to the morgue. Most of the nights, we would work till sunrise. We sent some injured to operation room.

SABAH (90)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

There were cases which the doctor had to amputate and they had no other option. One time, Dr. Akashe decided to amputate the foot of an injured. He had tried his best to preserve it but there was really no possibility. On that day I was looking at the surgery from rear of the glass window of the resting area of personnel. For amputation , there was a saw made of steel with big and arc shaped ribs. Dr. Akashe took the saw in his hands and placed it upper the knee of the patient and resected the ...

SABAH (89)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

He started talking that we were inside the house and my wife was washing clothes in the yard when the mortar bomb hit the door and the big quiver hit my wife. I told him: “Do you still wanna stay?!” He said: “Not any more. If I stay, both my children will be lost too.” I said: “One should have been killed so that you accept to leave here?! This poor woman was breast feeding. Now what will you do with her child?

SABAH (88)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

One time, they brought a patient from Fars province to our hospital. He needed surgery. After surgery we received him in recovery and brought him to the ward. At that time, the medication used for anesthesia was “Ketalar”. Due to the use of Ketalar in anesthesia, the patients went into a condition that they expressed anything they had in their minds and if anybody asked a question from them, they gave the right answer subconsciously;

SABAH (87)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

One day, Shahnaz and I decided to go and visit him. We asked the address until we found it. Their house was a big garden in Farmaniyeh Avenue. We were surprised to see the house and the entrance door. We couldn’t believe that he could come from such a family and residence. We knocked. His father answered the door. We introduced ourselves and said that we have come from Abadan to visit his son. The man acted very respectfully and invited us in.

SABAH (86)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

We returned to the hospital. We shook hands with the nurses and kissed and congratulated the Nowruz. We all wished that this is the last year that the country is stuck with the war … Two three days had passed since the Nowruz. I had taken leave to go to Tehran and visit my family. I wanted to be with them since I had not been with them the moment the Nowruz arrived. One of our friends called Zohreh Farrokh Nejad was from Shiraz and wanted to go and visit her family.

SABAH (85)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

Twenty second day of the second month of winter of 1980 was approaching. We wanted to celebrate the anniversary of victory of revolution despite being in the war. We decided to hold an exhibition in the hospital. Dr. Sa’adat, Fouziyeh, Afsaneh, me and a few others gathered to think about it. A surgery ward technician, Mr. Karegar, had ideas in cultural events. He had come from Hamedan together with Dr. Afsharis team to Abadan. He drew two three beautiful paintings for the exhibition.

SABAH (84)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

My greatest motivation for staying in Tehran was to find a chance to visit Imam Khomeini. Since 1357 and the trip I had to Qom and had seen him in person, I always remembered those sweet moment in my mind every night. In my family, except for myself, Ferdows had also visited Imam in person in her teenage years and fifteen years old. In the last month of autumn, a bus was arranged for women who had activities and logistics behind the frontline were going to visit Imam.

SABAH (83)

Memoirs of Sabah Vatankhah

At least now she could be covered under martyr foundation coverage and her poverty issue could be solved because she couldn’t fee her children. Poor woman was mourning her husband’s death with two little children. We would like to do something for her but in that condition, we could not do anything. We got on the bus. We ate cooked chicken for dinner in Khorramabad; this was the food that my father would bring us home while ...