Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): In the summer of 2017, at the Tos Hotel café in the holy city of Mashhad, Sadiq Al-Hayeki sat among a group of forcibly deported citizens from Bahrain, with an exhausted body from the Sickle Cell Anemia disease (sickler).

He was surrounded with his friends who were also forcibly deported. You don't need much to realize how much they love and fear for him. He started talking about what he had been subjected to in his country, Bahrain.

"They arrested me for the first time when I was in elementary school over the Al-Hujaira case. I wasn't able to take my final exams and had to repeat the scholastic year."

Sadiq tried hard to complete his studies after his release, but the security forces did not give him much time as they arrested him again two years later, specifically in October 2010, as part of a wide-range security campaign that included the arrests of several clerics and activists.

As the February 14th uprising erupted, the security authorities released dozens, including Sadiq Al-Hayeki, who was only 17 years old at the time.

"They arrested me twice, but I managed to escape from the hospital while I was being transferred to receive treatment for sickle disease, and then remained to be pursued," he said.

"I sustained an injury from a shotgun pellet in my eye once and then remained in hiding and I couldn't go to the hospital to get treatment for that injury that completely tore my retina."

His relatives advised him to flee away to receive treatment abroad, but he refused "I didn't support the idea of leaving Bahrain at all, but they promised to return me to Bahrain as soon as I received the necessary treatment for the shotgun pellet injury in my eye."

He went on to say that he "ran away in 2013 like many of the wanted, and went for treatment, but doctors said that a long time had passed since I sustained the injury and it could not be treated, but we could save what has remained of your sight."

Al-Hayeki heard the same words from doctors in the holy city of Mashhad, that the retina was completely damaged and could not be treated and there is no new retinal transplant.

"This is concerning my eye. However, the sickle cell anemia treatment is very expensive, because every hospital visit costs me about 80 dinars and I cannot afford those expenses, until I had to treat myself at home."

One of his friends interfered, "We started to give him medication for blood thinning (intravenous nutrients). We injected him several times. None of us knows about nursing at all."

"This is if the seizure was simple, but we had to take him to the hospital when the seizure was in the chest because many people with Sickle Cell Anemia die when they have a seizure in their chests," his friend adds. 

Sadiq tried to return to Bahrain. He moved to Abadan to find someone who would help him return to Bahrain by sea, but his friends who were with him persuaded him to change his mind.

There is no doubt that they are in grief now, as Sadiq died on Monday (July 18, 2022) at the age of 28.

Arabic Version