A dedicated father, forced to carry his disabled 18-year-old son up and down the stairs outside their home, was moved to tears when two first responder brothers stepped in to fund a life-changing apparatus.
New York City Police Officer Kareem Abdelaziz, 38, and his brother, New York Fire Department Lt. Abdelrahman Abdelaziz, 43, have known 51-year-old Sean Desmangles since he moved to their neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, from St. Lucia in the Caribbean for better medical care for his teen son.
Mr. Desmangles's son, 18-year-old Niem, was born with a rare blood disorder that caused brain damage, preventing him from developing and leaving him unable to talk or walk. Every three weeks, his father chaperones him to NYU Langone Health for a blood transfusion.
When Niem turned 18, it got difficult for Mr. Desmangles to continue carrying his son up and down the stairs so he created a GoFundMe page to raise money for a stairlift.
"Sometimes you have to swallow your pride when it comes to doing stuff for family," Mr. Desmangles told The Epoch Times. "I was trying to figure all my friends, send them the links."
Mr. Desmangles also reached out to Officer Abdelaziz, whom he'd known for more than a decade.
When Officer Abdelaziz first learned about Niem's condition, he became very emotional.
"It's a lifetime condition that he has to live with so it was just more about supporting him and his family from day one," he said.
So when Mr. Desmangles sent the GoFundMe link to Officer Abdelaziz on a December morning asking for help, he immediately reached out to his brother.
"I didn't even get to finish my sentence; my brother absolutely said, 'We'll help him out, there's no question about it,'" the officer said. "I hung up the phone. I got my thoughts together, my emotions together, and I reached out to Sean."
"He asked me to repeat myself, which I did," the officer said, "not knowing that I'm on speaker, and his family was also listening to the conversation. I repeated myself, and they just started getting very emotional and grateful," Officer Abdelaziz said.
After he ended the conversation with Mr. Desmangles, the officer made all the necessary transactions so that life could start getting a bit easier for Niem's father.
After the stairlift was installed, Mr. Desmangles was able to show the life-changing apparatus to his son. It "meant a lot" for the Abdelaziz brothers to relieve their friend's burden ahead of the holiday season.
"In the afternoon my son came and used it for the first time," Mr. Desmangles said. "My son had the right to smile, and, for me, it was a great help because no more carrying over steps. He is heavy, he is big."
After installing the stairlift, the Abdelaziz brothers were inundated with calls from people in the neighborhood, thanking them for their act of kindness.
However, for the first responders, who were born in Brooklyn and whose parents are from the Middle East, helping others was a lesson instilled in them as children.
"As a New York City police officer ... We rely on the community," Officer Abdelaziz said. "They are the eyes and ears of law enforcement officers. But most importantly, community is like family.
"What we hope for and pray for is that other people could see this as something that, you know, could soften their hearts. ... Sometimes people shouldn't have to ask for help, you should be willing to assist, especially if you're capable of helping those who are in need," he continued. "I hope that this definitely makes an impact on people's minds and lives."
Mr. Desmangles believes it's his duty to pay it forward.
"Anybody I meet who is disabled, or anything like that, I always extend a hand," he said. "Whatever I could do to help you, I will. ... you've got to extend that olive branch and help somebody else."
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