If a young life was not in danger of being cut cruelly short, this comedy of
errors could be an Oscar winner, as it is the "real comedy of errors or
rather of incompetence".
This is the story of a 16.5yr boy from Brufut Manneh Kunda. Bekai Manneh was
sent on an errand
by his mum sometime yesterday (Wednesday 15th May) evening. He diligently
picked up his bike and cycled to do the errand.
Unfortunately on his way, a "semester" (for those not familiar with the
lingo, A semester is a Gambian from the West holidaying back home), lost
control of his car and in the process nearly ended young Bekai's life.
Bekai was rushed to Serre Kunda clinic by a Gambian-Ghanaian Samaritan who
happened to witness the accident. They got him into Serre Kunda
Hospital/Health Centre at 17:00GMT.
Some police (as someone reported the incident at the Serre Kunda police
post) and relatives of Bekai from Brufut, Sukuta and Bakau who either
happened to be in Serre Kunda, were on their respective ways home from work,
or who Bekai's' mum had phoned crying that her young son has just been
killed, all congregated. They were all asked to wait in the corridor,
including Bekai who was by then bleeding from his head and mouth (as he had
lost two of his front teeth).
There they waited for nearly an hour, as there were not enough nurses let
alone doctors to see to everyone. Bekai's brother made a fuss that as his
little brother had head injuries he should be immediately seen to. This
unfortunately didn't go down too well with the health centre "big bosses",
who accused him of being rude and insolent. Another hour passed, still Bekai
laid on a hard bench bleeding, and no doctor or nurse was in sight. By 19:00
a young nurse came in and saw his condition and was shocked that he had not
been seen to. She immediately asked for him to be taken inside. She put him
on a drip and sat him on a chair. She went to find a doctor, and returned a
few minutes later to say that there was none. Apparently the doctor who was
supposed to work the evening shift( a Cuban) had gone to watch football and
as such was late in coming to work.
Another hour passed and this soccer-loving Cuban finally arrived. My family
thinking that he would see to Bekai immediately took it upon themselves to
explain to him what the situation is and how long they have been waiting for
him etc.
The doctor asked for Bekai to be taken into the "theatre", but as it has
always the case the whole evening, there was no specialist to operate the
machinery. He then looked at Bekai's injured head, cleaned and dressed it.
That stopped the bleeding. He then looked at his face and mouth and
exclaimed how swollen it was, and that unfortunately there were no free beds
in the hospital for Bekai to stay overnight. One of my uncles from Bakau
then told the doctor how ridiculous and pathetic they all were, how hopeless
the health centre was etc, and thus if he could kindly write a preliminary
medical report, to enable Bekai to be transferred to Banjul hospital. The
doctor made some phone calls, and later came back to tell him that the
situation was not any better in Banjul either and as such he would not
bother to give them a report. Much to his credit(if one can call it that) he
then asked for them to wait a bit longer for him to check what arrangements
could be made in having Bekai stay the night under medical supervision, but
sadly nothing came out of that.
The family, now with a mixture of fear and fury on their faces, asked the
doctor if he could take another look that Bekai's wounds as the bandage was
now soaked in blood and his face has ballooned up. Bekai was given some
injections and some tablets to take. An hour passed and still the bed
situation was unresolved, the doctor now asked them to take Bekai with them
back home to Brufut and to return this morning. My jaws just dropped, when
this part if the whole sad saga was been recounted over the phone this
morning. For a person suffering from head injuries to be asked to go home
and return the following morning only happens in Jammeh's Gambia.
Now am very mad, actually fuming with rage. Am mad not only mad at the inept
medical staff and the pittance of the medical services but also at my family
for none of them having the sense to phone any of us in EU or US about the
accident, for I personally would have asked them to take him to a private
clinic.
Now, am no doctor, but I would have thought that a head injury would have
been a priority, and that an accident victim especially one with wounds that
serious would have been ill-advised to have him moved about, but this is the
story of the medical services back home. The whole institution is
incompetent, and lacking, lacking in every sense of the word.
I did not decide to share this sad experience to score a point over the
murderous, inept, regime (that is a fact to all, except the morally blind,
the apologist and the "refuseniks"), but rather to put a stop to once and
for all the constant blabbering of how many hospitals Jammeh has built and
to see them in the only context that they should be seen is, as just "dogs
bollocks".
The whole experience has made me very sad, and made me do a lot of thinking.
Bekai is my own little brother, who I last saw in early 1994, when he and
his cousins came out of the "initiation", and was jokingly telling them that
they would be returned back if they ever slip and didn't address me as
"Koto". I recounted these events over and over again in my head and have to
admit I was nearly sick imagining that I nearly lost my baby brother and
that I would not have had been able to see and speak to him. He was a little
boy the last time I saw him and he has since grown to be a giant of a man.
He is bigger than I am, for I was told that he is 6'2" tall when am only a
miserly 5'11".I am also so mad at the carelessness of the unlicensed driver
as he did not only put other people's lives in danger but his very own too,
but I know accidents do happen, as I am a testament to that myself.
NB: If there are any people (Mr Gassama perhaps??), journalist(Mr Sillah??)
or any other concerned Gambian who would like to verify this story, pls let
me know and I shall provide you with the phone numbers and names of the
people back home for you to contact, and then perhaps share that info with
the L. I was told though that these incident are so rampant in the Gambia
that people have resigned to it.
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