21-year-old Grace Barnes is a living testimony after she survived a ran-over by a car which has bedridden her.
Miss Barnes who had attended a prayer meeting at Christian Village a suburb of Ashaiman, said she slept-off after she decided to take a rest on a park after prayers. She said she woke when she felt pains as the car ran over her ripping her hip bones apart.
Her mother, 43-year-old Esi Mary told crimecheckghana that the park where her daughter was lying was dark and the driver of the car had turned its lights off so he did not spot her.
“We shouted for help to be able to rush her to the hospital. Doctors conducted various scans and test on her and found out that her hip bone and other bones were broken,” she explained.
Narrating her ordeal, Miss Barnes said she can only lie on her back and unless she is carried, she is unable to move. “I laid on my back for eight months, and this caused me to develop a deep sore on my buttocks. It was really bad. When I was taken to the hospital, I was told my spinal cord had also been affected,” she said.
Medical care
The young lady said the driver sent her to his father who is a herbalist but he couldn’t treat her. She said she did not get any compensation from the driver when she decided to seek medical attention.
“At the hospital, the doctor said he will remove the bone at my back that is now resting on my nerves. He also said he will replace some of my broken bones with artificial ones, to enable me go for physiotherapy and put my hips in place,” she said.
She said raising Eighteen Thousand Ghana cedis which is the cost of the surgery has become a struggle for her mother because she earns only Twenty-five Ghana cedis from the help she offers her landlady in her ‘kenkey’ business.
More to the story
Miss Barnes said she would have completed the vocation she was learning but due to the incident which has bed-bound her for three years. She said throughout the period, they couldn’t report the incident to the Police because of financial difficulties.
Support
After three years battle for her life, help came her way after the driver’s boss who later heard about the incident paid for her initial treatment. “It was later that the manager of the driver’s company came to look for us and said he would help. He said whenever he asked about the car, the driver lied to him that it was at the mechanic shop. He later found out that the driver was involved in an accident and the car had been impounded by the police,” she said.
Hip-less Barnes still requires over Eighteen Thousand Ghana Cedis to undergo further treatment to save her life.
CCF’s Health Check Series
The Foundation, through the Health Check Series is used to support individuals who cannot afford medical aid.
