A Life Found In Unexpected Places- Qusay Hussein 

Imagine being a 17-year-old Iraqi young boy hanging out with your friends, and in an instant, your life literally changes right in front of your eyes. Qusay Hussein was just a young boy when he witnessed a suicide bombing, reached death itself, and lost the life he had then. As a young boy, Qusay wanted to be a plastic surgeon. He knew someone that was always made fun of because of his looks, and Qusay was always feeling the need to help and defend him from bullies. He dreamt of becoming a doctor so he can help people like that boy he knew. Sadly when the war started in 2003, all of that changed. Nobody went to school anymore and people hardly left their homes because they feared they wouldn’t return. They were afraid they would step on a hidden bomb or that they would fall into an explosion scene. Many years passed, and the war in Iraq was not any better. It was 2006 when Qusay almost perished from life itself. 

Qusay often said that life in Iraq during 2006 was not a life of hope or dreams. It was life in the midst of a war, where people lived just to survive the day. Civil war has broken at the time and suicide bombings were happening almost daily. It was a war zone and people just had to live with it. You did not dream of a future nor did you imagine your life to be any different. You lived your life in the best way that you could and you just did your best to survive. This life did not stop Qusay and his friends from attempting to have a good time and from being outdoors. They often went to a place they called “the stadium.” It is not a stadium that we may see in huge sports events or stadiums that held thousands of people. This was a stadium that was made of rocks and sand and was small. Young men would go to the stadium and just try to have a good time together. Some would want to sit so they would use their shoe as a seat and others would stand, run around and just enjoy each other’s company. 

Qusay recalls being at the stadium one day with his two brothers and other friends when he heard a pickup truck coming their way. He watched the truck dramatically make its way around him to the point where it was so close to him that it almost killed him. Qusay looked into the eyes of the man as the man looked to both sides of his surroundings, smiled, and pressed down on his car horn. It was like a volcano went off and a massive fireball was flying in the air. Qusay was only about 5 feet away from the truck as he felt his body flying like a bird in the sky, except this was a body flying from the strength of a bomb. He flew into the air and landed face-first into the rough ground. As he was flying in the air, Qusay recalls seeing the car flying around him as if he was watching an action movie. After he lands face-first, he feels blood rushing down his face and decides that it’s just a broken nose and he gets up and starts running. As soon as he is up and running, shrapnel hits his skull, he falls to the ground with no energy to move his body at all. This is when he went blind!  A few months later, Qusay learned that the shrapnel was just slightly off from killing him completely. This was the first sign to say that Allah did not plan for Qusay to leave this world yet. 

Qusay’s home was not far from the stadium so his father had heard the bombing and he rushed to the stadium to see if his children were okay. As he was searching for his children, he heard Qusay call out to him and he was relieved to find his son alive. After being sent to safety, Qusay’s family was told that Qusay would die in 30 minutes. He was put in the room with all the people that have died from the explosion. His father went to recover the body so he can get it washed and buried but he heard Qusay plead, “dad help me, I am alive!” Qusay was sent to a U.S. base for treatment and he went into a coma for 12 days. During those 12 days, his family had no contact with the U.S. base and had assumed their son was dead. They arranged a funeral and claimed a death certificate from the Iraqi government. When his family got the phone call that he was alive, they did not believe it. It took time for them to believe it and for them to accept the new Qusay. A few weeks before that, Qusay was a healthy 17-year-old son to them and now he was home blind, physically mutilated from the explosion, and traumatized. Qusay’s father did not understand why God allowed Qusay to live this way. He preferred that his son would die and not live a life of pain. When Qusay learned about his permanent vision loss, he became depressed. He lived his next two years miserably. He did not want to be alive and it was very hard for him to accept that he was blind. He was depressed!

 His faith in God and in God’s plan gave him the motivation to later overcome all of the obstacles that came his way. In 2010, with the help of Doctors without Borders in Jordan, Qusay received many more treatments, and he reached a point where he became as self-sufficient as possible. He later resettled in Austin, Texas, and adapted to life in the states by quickly learning English and excelling in everything he attempted. Qusay turned his trauma into a form of self-motivation as well as motivation and inspiration for others. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in social work and he will not stop at anything until he reaches his goal of becoming a doctor--as he once promised his father. 

Qusay is a perfect example of how life can seem like it is completely over with nothing to live for and to show that it can get turned around into something beautiful and meaningful with faith, hard work, and a lot of intentional effort. He used his strengths to strengthen his weaknesses and he used his faith in God’s plan to keep pushing himself out of the difficult life he was enduring. This is life. We deal with obstacles in our day-to-day lives. Some may be huge obstacles like the ones Qusay was overcoming and others may be smaller. No matter what our obstacles are and no matter how hard we think we are trying, we can always try harder. We are worth it; we owe it to ourselves to be the best we can be even when it seems like the entire universe is against us. Just keep in mind that God has a plan for you. Remember that every soul on this earth has a purpose, and it is our job to find that purpose. That purpose will make us happy and content with the life that we create for ourselves. I am sure if someone had told 17-year-old Qusay that he will end up in Texas motivating people to live their best lives, he would have laughed. We don’t know where we will end up, but like Qusay, keep on pushing and believe that God has beautiful plans for you.  Allow your heart to heal and allow your body to take you to the unexpected places that you will soon discover. 

If you feel depressed, unhappy with yourself and your life, please reach out to REDA’s helpline at bit.ly/REDAhelp. We can provide resources to help you overcome your depression--you will be just fine. 

03.27.2022