Rabih Riyad Faraj

Rabih Riyad Faraj, of Lebanese nationality.
A new old victim who has been recently unraveled.
Survived a catastrophe that could’ve cost him his life, just for him to fall into a bigger one: the Beirut port explosion that shook the very core of the city.

Rabih Faraj, a hardworking man providing for his family, born in the village of Douris in Baalbek, was in his forties when he met his fate on the 16th of August 2020, due to the destruction of the Geitaoui Hospital on the fourth of August 2020, where he was resting on one of the beds recovering from burning injuries he suffered from since July 2020.

Rabih was born to parents Riyad and Fatima Faraj on 11 August 1971, in a family consisting of four sisters and a brother.
He was born and brought up in Baalbek where he studied, before specializing in industrial mechanics, a domain he worked in for a company called Saga Concept in Fanar- Ain Saade.

Rabih and Mariam Mehiddine got married in late 1998 and had three kids: the eldest daughter is 21 years old, and two sons of 17 and 7 years of age. The family settled in one of the floors of the building in which the company he worked for operates.

His wife Mariam says that Rabih was the perfect dad. Life with him was easy going and beautiful. Rabih had a dream of building his own house and settling in with his family and living a peaceful life. However, Rabih suffered an incident during his work, days before the blast, which required him to be hospitalized due to severe burn injuries. It is then that the explosion happened, while Rabih was in the hospital, which worsened his situation, preventing him from fulfilling his dreams.

It is no secret that the hospitals in the capital got their fair share of the explosion.
Rabih Faraj was one of Geitaoui hospital’s patients who got thrown in the air due to the explosion of the warehouse, and slammed on the floor, leaving his frail recovering body with no oxygen. All of this happened while a power cut off, leading to the air conditioners, that were cooling his body, to shut down. Moreover, the glass that pierced his skin, after the whole room was almost destroyed completely, only affected his state negatively.
The evening of the fourth of August was agonizing to Rabih, followed by neglect from the hospital to check on its patients. Can they be blamed though, considering everyone was in an utter state of shock and panic following what had happened? Thus, Rabih kept on fighting neglect, up until his health deteriorated, infections penetrated his wounds and his condition worsened by day.
On the 16th of August 2020, Rabih took his last breath.

A religious ceremony was held for him on the 16th of August 2020, and Rabih was buried in the family cemetery in Douris.