Randa Elias Rizkallah, a new victim who passed away a year and a half after being injured in the Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020.

Born in Achrafieh on April 2, 1959, she was married to Camille Abdo Ziadeh, a member of the Mansourieh – Ain El Marej municipal council, and they had two children, Georges and Joanna.
Camille and Randa met in 1978 and got married. They lived in Achrafieh for a long time, almost twenty-three years, before the family moved to Bhamdoun, the husband’s hometown, which he had left when he was displaced in 1975 and returned to between 1994 and 1995 to build a new house and live there with his family.

Randa worked as a nurse for almost thirty years. She started at the Karantina Hospital, then moved to Bellevue Hospital when the family moved house, but a few years later she went back to the Karantina Hospital.

Randa was injured in the port explosion while on duty at the hospital. Her wounds were not serious, but she later suffered from liver problems after the blast threw her against the wall. Her liver was damaged, and her physical and mental health got worse afterwards.

After the shock of the explosion, Randa’s health declined. She suffered from general weakness and lost the ability to walk and eat. Medical reports state that she had «a nervous breakdown and severe psychological trauma after the port explosion, later suffered a fall and multiple fractures, and was admitted to hospital with severe infections of the lungs and urinary tract…».

Randa received the treatment she needed, and after all of this she also needed psychological follow-up with specialists.

The sound of the explosion and its echo always rang in her mind. Whenever she heard a loud bang, her memory took her back to that moment and she shook with fear.

Randa’s health got worse day after day and she had to go back to hospital. Her condition deteriorated, especially her liver, and she stayed in intensive care at Al Jabal Hospital as her health kept declining, until she passed away on January 16, 2022. She was laid to rest on Monday the 17th, at the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua in Sebaal.