It is a matter that forensic experts of the police force whose (missing) bullet hit Achan would be expected to take urgent interest in. The orthopedic surgeons attending to Achan say all the X-ray done indicate an entry bullet wound but its’ exit cannot be traced.
It has been a terrible Easter for an innocent woman and her family who are traumatized with anxiety as a bullet police accidentally fired into her body a week ago has eluded medical workers who have been probing her body using X-ray equipment.
Whereas, the bullet clearly entered 37 year old Mary Achan, and with no sign that it exited her body, medics are baffled as they cannot find it inside her.
The victim of the police stray bullet is a resident of Budhumbuli village in
Northern division of Jinja city and was shot and injured by a stray bullet while
seated in a commuter Coaster taxi on her way home from Jinja town last Tuesday.
Achan was shot by police officers who were attempting to
arrest suspected rowdy youth in Bugembe trading center.
The suspects were resisting arrest, prompting police to
employ teargas and live bullets in a bid to subdue them, but they instead ended up shooting
at Achan during the scuffle.
Achan sustained injuries in the left thigh area and was admitted
at Jinja regional referral hospital Ward 9, where her wound was cleaned and
X-ray investigations conducted. However, they failed to trace the location of
the bullet within her body.
She was then discharged on Thursday last week but after experiencing
aching pain in her femur, Achan resolved to seek further help from Unity Medical Center where she is receiving antibiotics aimed at relieving her of the persistent
pain.
Achan told URN that on Thursday she sought medical
attention from a private clinic after realizing that the wound was rotting
away. “Although health workers at the Jinja regional referral hospital
discharged me and directed me to report for medical checkups every after two
weeks, I realized that, not only was I feeling a lot of pain but the wound was
also rotting away.
"So I had no option but seek help from this
orthopedic clinic for further management,” she says.
Angella Yavurwa, the victim’s mother says that despite
their efforts to have her daughter fully recover, they are worried over the
doctor’s failure to trace the bullet or its’ fragments within her body.
Yavurwa further reveals that, their family is unable to pay the 3.5 million Shillings bill which is required by the orthopedist
before conducting surgery on Achen’s.
It is a matter that forensic experts of the police force whose (missing) bullet hit Achan would be expected to take urgent interest in. One of the orthopedic surgeons attending to Achan, Ronald Ssembuya says that all the available X-ray studies indicate that there was an
entry bullet wound but its’ exit cannot be traced, which raises suspicion that the bullet is still lodged in the victim’s body.
Ssembuya stresses that Achan’s hip area was completely
immobilized and she requires urgent surgery so as to control possible damage to other body parts.
//cue in: “apparently in this…
Cue out…is still inside,”.//
It is a precarious situation, when a case that has defeated the regional referral hospital is taken up by a local clinic.
