The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | It has been a terrible Easter for an innocent woman and her family who are traumatized as a bullet police accidentally fired at her a week ago has eluded medical workers who cannot trace it, even after 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.
The victim of the police stray bullet is a resident of Budhumbuli village in Northern division of Jinja city. She was shot and injured by a stray bullet while seated in a 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 a sh3.5 million bill which is required by the orthopedist before conducting surgery on Achen.
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.
It is a precarious situation, say experts, when a case that has defeated the regional referral hospital is taken up by a local clinic.
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