From blast to banking crisis, one woman embodies Lebanon's complete collapse

Liliane Cheaito, who is mostly paralyzed from August 2020 port blast holds her sister's hand at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon July 26, 2022. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Liliane Cheaito's scratchy, laboured breathing went on until a nurse appeared at her hospital bed, where the 28-year-old has spent nearly every moment of the last two years in silent suffering following the Beirut port explosion of 2020.

Using a suctioning machine, the nurse emptied her lungs of built-up phlegm and Cheaito's heaving chest finally eased.