Lujain Hussein remains in a medically induced coma at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City after the attack by four boys from the fourth grade at Al Maali International School, which has students from many different countries. The identities and nationalities of the attackers were not revealed.
The child is under close observation in the hospital, where a spokesman said medical records had been provided to the police.
“When Lujain first entered the hospital, she was struggling between life and death,” he said. “But now she’s doing better and her situation is improving. The doctors are keeping her sedated until the tubes are removed and she is ready to wake up.”
Lujain’s school is “in denial” over the incident, the child’s mother told The National, the English language daily in Abu Dhabi.
“What I want to know is why nothing was done immediately,” said Maha Abdul Khair. “Where were the supervisors and school staff to stop this from happening, and to prevent my daughter from reaching this point?”
Mrs. Abdul Khair said that although school staff and administrators had paid visits to her daughter, they are still “in denial about what took place”.
“They’re insisting that Lujain was only hit on her stomach and not on her head,” she said. “If this is the case, how could this happen? Why is she here?”
Khadeeja Al Sayar, the school principal, said on Tuesday the attack had taken place in an isolated area of the playground.
“By the time the students had notified the instructors and supervisors, the bell rang and everyone had gone to class. The playground was empty,” she said.
“These fights happen all the time. The boys were questioned by the police. After the officers made them understand the gravity of the situation, the boys still said they only gave her a box on the stomach.”
But Mrs. Abdul Khair said: “We’ve heard the four students involved keep changing their stories, so no one really knows what happened to our daughter.”
The tubes draining the excess blood from her head are expected to remain in place about two weeks.
“The doctors are worried that if they wake her up she’ll be in too much pain,” her brother, Mahran, 22, said.
“Friends and family are always checking in,” he said. “Some of the school’s staff have also paid a visit, but they are still defensive about what happened.
Her doctor said Lujain had a condition called arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Dr, Hasnain Haider-Shah, a consultant physician of interventional radiology at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, said Lujain also had a pre-existing aneurysm, an enlarged artery caused by a weakened blood vessel. AVM, in which blood from the arteries bypasses the brain tissue and goes straight to the veins, is congenital.
“This was revealed through a CT scan we conducted when she was admitted to the hospital,” he said.
“The slightest amount of trauma could have caused bleeding, and the degree of injury on the soft tissue indicates the attack may not have caused this much bleeding on its own, but acted as a trigger.”
A team from the Abu Dhabi Education Council, including the director general, Dr. Mugheer Al Khaili, visited Lujain as part of the council’s investigation.
“They told us they would continue looking into the matter once my sister woke up and could speak,” the brother said. “The first and most important thing is her health.”
