Girl Loses Leg In School

Alex Tetteh-Enyo, Education Minister A SECOND year student (name withheld) of Yaa Asantewaa Girls' Secondary School (YAGSS) in Kumasi has lost her left leg because her dormitory House Mistress, Madam Vivian Tanoh Boakye, allegedly prevented her from seeking immediate medication when she got injured.

The 17-year-old girl, who is currently physically challenged, according to reports, got injured when she went on a dawn jogging with her colleagues outside the school around November, last year.

Despite reporting the injury, Madam Vivian, who is said to be strict and unsympathetic, purportedly refused the young girl an immediate exeat to enable her leave campus to seek medication at home.

The young girl, reports indicate, was only permitted to leave the school for medication by Madam Vivian, who is the House Four Mistress at the school, when the injury was said to be at an advanced stage.

This development, sources said, contributed to the amputation of the leg of the teenager who is now at home facing life with just one leg whilst her mates study in school.

A source who disclosed this to DAILY GUIDE on anonymity said the juvenile began to experience pains in the lower parts of her left leg on Thursday a day after returning from the trotting.

The young girl, she said, reported the injury to her mates at the dormitory who thereafter used some ointment to massage the injured leg after which the pain eased.

On the following day which was Friday, the pain in the young girl's leg resurfaced, compelling her to weep, so in the company of her friends, she reported her ordeal to Madam Vivian.

Though the young girl appealed to the House Mistress to grant her exeat to go home for medication, Madam Vivian, who reportedly seemed unconcerned, flatly denied her permission, the source noted.  

The pain in the young lad's leg, the source disclosed, got aggravated around 3:30 pm of Saturday, so the girl was rushed to Madam Vivian's house again but for the second time she again denied the young girl exeat to leave campus.  

Around 8:30 pm on the same day the 17-year-old girl's pain worsened and was rushed to Madam Vivian's house once more but the young girl's wailing amid pleads to be sent to the hospital for medication fell on deaf ears as her House Mistress rejected her pleas for help.

Instead, Madam Vivian reportedly rather massaged the young girl's leg with a certain hot ointment after which she bandaged the leg, making the young girls' leg swell afterwards.  

The young girl, according to sources, did not sleep that day because of the severe pains she felt in the leg as she cried all night in the presence of her colleagues at the dormitory who could not rush her to the hospital.

The source said the victim was only taken to the hospital on Sunday morning after her mother visited the school, adding, due to the seriousness of the injury, she was admitted at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi right away.

He noted that since the young girl's injury was deteriorating when she was taken to the hospital, medical doctors at KATH could not help but to amputate the swollen and darkened leg to prevent the swelling from spreading to the upper part of her leg.

He hinted that authorities at the school has so far solicited GH¢2100 from students at YAGSS for the amputated girl's mother to take care of their colleague's hospital bills.  

The source alleged that this is not the first time that Madam Vivian has not shown sympathy and love to the girls in House four at the school, adding, she has been terrorizing the young girls in the school especially those in her dormitory.

He alleged that Madam Vivian recently detained about eight final years' students in the dormitory for three days at the mercy of mosquitoes as a sign of punishing them for erring.

According to the source, Madam Vivian has been maltreating the young girls in the school with impunity because the YAGSS Head Mistress, Mrs. Elizabeth Malik Jabir, appreciates her so much that nobody dares talk whenever she strikes at the innocent and hapless students.

The young girl's mother, whose name was only given as Agartha when contacted, confirmed the story, lamenting that she had spent all her money to seek proper medication for her amputated daughter.

She disclosed pathetically that Madam Vivian treated her with derision when she visited the school to take her child's belongings; “she shouted at me and treated me as if I am not a human being,” she disclosed.

Agartha insisted that the ointment and bandage that Madam Vivian used on her daughters leg contributed to the amputation of her daughter's leg, adding, “my daughter's leg would not have been amputated had Madam Vivian taken her to hospital earlier”.

Agartha who is planning to replace her daughter's amputated leg with an artificial leg complain that the money given to her by the school is woefully inadequate and thus called on the president and the Education Ministry to intervene.

Meanwhile, all attempts to get Madam Vivian to react to the allegations proved futile as she failed to answer calls DAILY GUIDE made to her.

From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi