Ahmad Dabeh, his wife and four children have all been diagnosed with COVID-19, forcing them to mourn the death of 19-year-old Yassin Dabeh while quarantining at home.
Yassin worked as a contact cleaner at a nursing home in Middlesex-London before he contracted COVID-19 and died on Sunday, January 24th. He is the youngest person to die from the virus in Ontario and only the third death under the age of 20 across Canada.
Yassin was a teenage refugee who immigrated from Syria with his family in 2016. Ahmad tells OMNI Television his son had aspirations of a better life, but chose to spend his time helping the less fortunate through the pandemic.
“We had opposed his work in the long-term care home because it is dangerous in the period of the pandemic,” Ahmad said.
“We tried to prevent it, but he insisted and said that everyone is at risk and we live in the protection of God and this is my duty and my work and I will not abandon him now.”*
According to Ahmad, his son started experiencing chest pains in the beginning of the year and tested positive in the second week of January. While he did go to the hospital a few times to get checked out, Yassin was never actually admitted. He was pronounced dead by paramedics a few days later after being found unconscious in bed.
At this point the family is not laying blame for his death on the hospital or the long-term care home where Yassin worked.
Ahmad said the family is also struggling to quell rumors circling online claiming Yassin’s death was the result of suicide or a drug overdose.
“They were not there at the time of death and they were not there to watch him struggle with COVID-19,” Ahmad said.
“Let us mourn in peace.” *
Community leaders are taking Yassin’s untimely death as an opportunity to call for better protections to those battling COVID-19 on the frontlines.
Muhammad Fakih is the CEO of Paramount Fine Foods and philanthropist and who actively speaks out in support of frontline workers.
His restaurant chain has teamed up with SEIU Healthcare to deliver hot meals to long-term care homes as part of the “Food for the Frontline” campaign.
In a video posted to Twitter, Fakih announced that this week’s donation would be in memory of Yassin, promising to continue showing support for disenfranchised communities through the pandemic.
“There has been so much tragedy and sadness over the last year. Yesterday we heard about the death from COVID of this 19-year-old boy,” Fakih said.
“A frontline worker in a long-term care home in London, Ontario and this is the first person in Ontario under the age of 20 to die from this virus. This has totally broken my heart. It’s pain after pain…tragedy on tragedy…so today we are cooking this meal in his honor and in remembrance of the over 3000 people who have died in LTCs in Ontario.”
Cooking 500 meals in Regent Park for people in need. In honour and remembrance of Yassin Dabeh and over 3000 seniors and
frontline workers who have died in LTCs#LTCFrontlineFoodhttps://t.co/wrBjpLmzYB pic.twitter.com/7Sd1PhoLlY— Mohamad Fakih, C.M. (@mohamadfakih8) January 24, 2021
In an interview with OMNI Television, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh shared his frustrations around Yassin’s death and the precarious position many frontline workers are forced to endure.
“Yassin is the picture of the terrible toll of COVID-19,” Singh said.
“A frontline worker…Syrian refugee trying to build a better life who lost his life…We need to focus on getting vaccines into the arms of vulnerable — and that means seniors in long-term care, but also frontline workers…workers like Yassin.”
Singh notes that he will continue to fight for a paid sick leave program to make it easier for patients to stay at home.
* translated from Arabic
