Here's a sad story of a 5-year-old girl with bomb pellets lodged near her heart who has allegedly been neglected by the government after the accidental misfire by the Nigerian Air Force on Rann IDP camp in Borno state.. Read below;...
Hammin Mohammed was playing with her siblings and friends near a borehole, which was said to have been the input of the ministry of water resources and aid groups at the camp. The new set of borehole was going to bring a huge relief to the IDPs, who queued for hours to fetch a gallon of water for a household use – per day.
As they played around – oblivious of the tension that was building in the camp, owing to the strange movement of a military jet in the skies – the bomb dropped! Free-spirited Hammin was injured by shrapnels – fragmentation thrown out by an exploding bomb. This transformed her from a happy, singing child, to a numb five-year-old.
From January 17 till February 17, 2017, Hammin has not uttered a single word, her caretaker and sister, Kally Mohammed, tells TheCable.
The five-year-old, who lies expressionless on a duvet-covered bed at the end of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) paediatric ward, looked at everyone around, with no words for them. Regardless of how good she looked, it was clear all was not well with her.
When Hammin was taken to the accident and emergency unit of the teaching hospital, she was referred to the paediatric ward but was neglected and left untreated for the “lack of funds”. Hajia Fatima (pseudonym), who eventually paid the bills, narrates how Hammin was neglected by the authorities of UMTH and the military, which “orchestrated” her fate.
“I called one of the junior doctors and asked why is this girl not being treated, he said because she didn’t pay the bills, I said how much; he said N3,000 for the X-ray and N3,750 for medicine,” she recalls. “I paid for all and said just take care of her. For two days, they didn’t carry out the blood test because of lack of money.
“Apparently, she had malaria because of mosquitoes in the hospital, and they later found she had typhoid too, after she did the test. For God sake, is it their fault that they bombed their base?”
X-RAY: RANN BOMB PELLET LODGED NEAR VITAL ORGANS
When the X-ray was eventually carried out, the film revealed that bomb pellets were still lodged somewhere in Hammin’s rib-cage, a few inches from her heart and at the lower part of her abdomen, which has contributed to her silence since the day the bombs dropped in Rann.
Hammin Bomb Pellet
“The doctors said they are not removing the pellet,” Kally says, as Hammin interrupts with a coughs. The five-year-old has three major activities in her new life: coughing, sleeping and – fortunately – eating.
UMTH feeds her three times a day but her family of eight – who are also tending to treatment and care in Rann, with less complex injuries from the bombing – bear the responsibility for footing her medical bills.
Hajia Mohammed, Hammin’s mother, who was initially taking care of her at UMTH had to return to Rann to cater for four other children, who were also affected in the bomb blast, sending Kally to watch over her little sister.
A doctor, who spoke to TheCable on the sensitivity of a surgery, also revealed that the “foreign bodies” in Hammin’s body will not be removed for now, because more damage can be caused in the process of removal, hence the need to leave it there “for now”.
“Her silence and pain may be psychological,” he says
No comments:
Post a Comment
WE LOVE COMMENTS, POST A COMMENT