By Joseph Lamin Kamara
A young Sierra Leonean woman is dying in waiting because of neglect.
Fatmata Tarawallie, who currently languishes at the Milton Margai School for the Blind in Freetown, was allegedly subjected to a beastly battering by her husband who was accused of splashing on her face caustic soda. The incident occurred in Dembelia, Sinkunia Chiefdom in the northern district of Koinadugu in December, 2013. The husband, Momodu Mansaray, remains in custody pending a court case that`s unable to proceed for the inability of the sickly woman to appear in court.
For now, the utmost concern is the urgency of her situation. Doctors say Fatmata needs urgent evacuation overseas for emergency specialist treatment.
According to the Italian charity Emergency Hospital at Goderich on the outskirts of the capital, which is giving her a temporary treatment, Fatmata’s oesophagus is melted and she is “stark blind.” That has left her eat through a gastrostomy tube, as there is stenosis in her oesophagus which cannot now allow any substance to pass through after 48 hours of dilation.
Politico understands that even President Ernest Bai Koroma knows about Fatmata and he has sent the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs Moijue Kaikai to investigate her case when she was first hospitalized in January, 2014.
Fatmata and Ibrahim Kamara who is taking care of her barely live on meagre offerings the gender ministry and kindhearted people give them.
But the ministry of health is the appropriate authority to fly her out for the treatment that can possibly restore her sight and oesophagus and her case is with them, yet it appears it represents relevance to the decision makers.
Both Ibrahim Kamara and Alhassan Kamara, MP for Constituency 48, where the victim hails from, say they have information that the Health ministry has approved a list of three people to be flown overseas for treatment. But they are disappointed that Fatmata`s name isn’t on the list.
According to Ibrahim, insiders of the ministry told him that her case was far worse than those of the people whom the ministry had decided to fly out. “They said it’s a mere political influence,” he told Politico.
MP Kamara said Wednesday that the ministry’s director of finance and permanent secretary had both told him a list of three people had been approved by the ministry for overseas treatment, but that the ministry lacked the finance to add his constituent to the potential evacuees.
However, a few minutes before that phone interview with the MP, Health and Sanitation Minister Dr Abu Bakarr Fofanah and the Chief Medical Officer Dr Brima Kargbo denied in a special session with Politico the existence of any such list.
“They [cases] keep coming day by day and the ministry does not have the resources,” Dr Fofana told Politico in an earlier phone interview.
Although the minister said he had over 20 cases in need of specialist treatment abroad, he said he had never received any document about Fatmata. He explained that there were cases more serious than the blind woman`s, among which he said were a long serving medical doctor whose “eyes are threatened” and a soldier whose condition wasn’t disclosed. The minister however said even if Fatmata’s case was before him then, he would first deal with those two cases that had reached him already.
MP Kamara and Ibrahim Kamara however said one of the people whose cases have been approved for evacuation is a soldier.
The Chief Medical Officer, who is the professional head of the ministry, admitted he had received a recommendation letter from the Medical Board for the 26-year-old to be flown out. And he said he had forwarded the case to the ministry’s permanent secretary for the approval of the minister.
Although the permanent secretary was out of his office at the time of Politico’s investigation, his secretary who could not deny having dealt with the case promised to search for Fatmata’s documents.
Doctors who have spoken to Politico on the case say people who have been affected by caustic soda like Fatmata hardly survive without proper and urgent care.
“People like her can die at any time because of lack of proper care and family neglect,” said an Emergency Hospital doctor.
Fatmata Tarawallie’s case is known by many authorities. It was the seriousness of her case that forced the ministry of social welfare to take her to the blind school where she has been since January last year. Unfortunately, authorities at the school have complained that her seeming infinite stay is inconveniencing their operation, according to Ibrahim, the caretaker of the sick woman.
Before Fatmata sustained her disabilities, she was the breadwinner of her family which includes her seventy-year-old mother, her two children and a boy whom her late epileptic sister left behind. She spent most of her days back then in the market selling food items and returned late in the day to prepare food for the family.
“Even though she herself is struggling for her life, she worries so much for those children and her mother. They family is suffering. Schools have reopened, but there is nobody to take care of them,” Ibrahim said.
© Politico 30/04/15
