Saudis and Americans Work to Support Student Family in the Midst of Tragedy
By Patrick Ryan

Cookeville, Tennessee � When Ibrahim Alghamdi drove his wife Eman to the Cookeville Regional Medical Center Emergency Room last month it was with the expectation that the birth of their second child would be routine. It was not. Ibrahim, a Saudi engineering student at nearby Tennessee Technological University, learned his wife was suffering from Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, or ARDS, which is frequently fatal. 

Doctors at the Cookeville hospital delivered their son, Abdullah Ibrahim Alghamdi, on March 2, 2009 but Eman was soon placed on a ventilator and treated in the Intensive Care Unit for respiratory failure. Ibrahim remained at her side at the hospital while caring for the newborn and their sixteen-month-old daughter. 

Eman�s condition deteriorated and by the middle of March the Cookeville hospital was asking the United States Embassy in Saudi Arabia to expedite visas for the young couple�s parents to travel to Tennessee as she was not expected to survive the illness. Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington got involved in supporting the Alghamdi family and asked Tennessee Tech engineering student Saeed Al Rubaiee, Vice President of the Saudi Students Club to assist the family in Cookeville.

As Eman continued to battle the illness in the Cookeville hospital ICU arrangements were made for family members in Saudi Arabia to travel to the United States. According to Rubaiee many Saudi officials were deeply concerned about the situation and became directly involved in the case, �Ambassador Adel Al Jubeir called several times from Washington to make sure everything that could be done was being done and Ms. Kulud Al Khalaf of the embassy was calling day and night to check on the family and their situation.� He added, �Along with many others they showed heartfelt concern for the Alghamdi family.� Rubaiee said he was even called by the office of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan who is in New York City undergoing medical treatment. Unfortunately the health of Eman�s parents did not permit them to travel overseas so it was only Ibrahim�s parents who were able to travel to Tennessee to be with the family. 

Rubaiee also praised the work of Cookeville hospital staff especially Dr. Douglas Kane who was attending to Eman. He also noted, �I remember standing with Ibrahim at night as he watched over his wife and the nurses there were so kind to him.� He appreciated the efforts of officials at Tennessee Tech, like Professor Peggy Kilgore, who offered support asking the people at her church in Cookeville to pray for Eman and the family, and assisted Eman in the hospital with personal needs.

After 43 days in the Cookeville hospital ICU, on April 15, 2009, Eman Alghamdi died from the consequences of the ARDS illness. �The five Saudi families, the other Saudi students at Tech and everyone who knew the family were deeply saddened by the loss,� said Rubaiee. �She had only been here for three months before going into the hospital but she was so friendly with everyone and everyone liked her and Ibrahim.� 

The prompt return of Eman and the family to Saudi Arabia immediately ran into a snag. Commercial air transportation of her remains from Nashville to New York to connect with a flight to Saudi Arabia was not possible for at least four days after the surviving Alghamdi family members were prepared to travel. Rubaiee said Kulud Al Khalaf and Mohammed Alghamdi of the Saudi Embassy were extremely supportive in making all of the arrangements and he recalled the phone call from Ambassador Al Jubeir who told him that King Abdullah was sending an airplane to Nashville to transport Eman�s remains to New York for the flight home. �When the people here heard that King Abdullah sent a private jet many of them were very surprised. I cannot explain the happiness the family had at the news that the King wanted to help them.�

The loss of Eman Alghamdi was a tragedy for her family and her friends but, as Saeed Rubaiee pointed out, it was gratifying to see the support offered by Saudis and Americans � from King Abdullah, to the Saudi and American embassies, to the Cookeville hospital and Tennessee Tech University � in taking care of this young family in crisis.

<Patrick Ryan is editor-in-chief of the Saudi-US Relations Information Service (SUSRIS.org) and lives in Cookeville, Tennessee. >