April 10 Victim Still Confined to Hospital Bed
     
    
    
<A HREF="http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?passed_name=The%20Independent&passed_location=Banjul">The Independent</A> (Banjul)April 11, 2003 
Posted to the web April 11, 2003 Pa Malick Secka
Banjul Yusupha Mbye a victim of the April 10, 2000 student demonstration has 
had to commemorate three years after the tragedy confined to a hospital bed 
in the Royal Victoria Hospital.Yusupha who narrowly escaped death when some 
small arms fire was directed at a group of students he was part of at the 
Westfield Junction said he has almost lost all hopes of a speedy recovery due 
to lack of interest from those who can help fly him abroad for treatment. He 
has been left completely paralysed by the impact of a shot that hit his spine 
and other internal organs after the paramilitary forces fired on several 
student demonstrators.He told The Independent on the eve of the day's 
commemoration that since he was wheeled into the hospital after an 
unsuccessful trip to Egypt and the United Kingdom almost two years ago to 
undergo surgery for damages to his spine and other vital internal organs in 
the run-up to his UK trip, the Department of Social Welfare through the 
Gambian High Commission in London had reportedly tried to pay medical bills 
amounting to D298, 375.000 to the Tayside University Hospital in Dundee 
Scotland.However, Yusupha was discharged from the university hospital after a 
fortnight when the money was found not to have been paid. He was flown in 
from London by the end of 2001 and has since stayed confined to his hospital 
bed in the RVH, where he said he is usually overtaken with maddening despair. 
According to Tayside university hospital in a letter sent to the RVH, they 
were being owed 4, 600 pounds in bills for the treatment of Corporal John 
Ndure of The Gambian Armed Forces and they were determined that such an 
amount must be paid in full before they could treat any fresh patient.Three 
years after the students' protest and two years after his unsuccessful trip 
to the UK, Yusupha is still plain and critical. "All efforts to give me 
medical attention have been useless. My condition is no better than it was 
three years ago. With all the frustration and the stress, I am in more 
terrible condition" he lamented."It has been a year since a doctor came to 
check on me. I am just lying on my sick bed waiting and hoping for something 
I am not sure would come" he despairingly added. Yusupha said he still keeps 
nostalgic memories of school with his peers and the contrast of life then and 
the reality of his paralysis now usually drive him to heart-writhing 
depression. He said his parent have been left devastated by his plight, a 
filial despondency which was temporarily lifted when he took the trip to 
Egypt and the United Kingdom."I wrote to the president on several occasions 
but there is still no response from him. If this message could reach him that 
I need his total help for treatment abroad it would lighten me up. You can 
imagine how everyday passes with me in the same condition, when just over 
three years ago, I was as fit as a fiddle" he said."I am honestly desperate 
for help from any quarter, government, NGOs, individuals and communities> I 
just want an opportunity for treatment and improvements to my condition to 
help me feel like a normal person again" he added.



"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are 
evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
 - Albert Einstein
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change 
the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead 
"When the government fears the people, you have liberty. When the people fear 
the government, you have tyranny." 
- Thomas Jefferson
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" 
- Edmund Burke 

    
    

    

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