Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Alleged police brutality, sodomy…Mother of victim wants Govt. to foot overseas bill
The mother of the 23-year-old man who allegedly sustained serious bodily injuries as a result of a brutal attack by a Constable is out to have the Government pay for the overseas medical attention for her son.
The young man, Colwyn Harding, claims that on November 15, 2013 while staying at a home in Timehri North, East Bank Demerara, he was beaten by the Constable and other officers into a state of unconsciousness twice, and was sodomised by a condom-covered baton resulting in a ruptured intestine. He is currently hospitalised in the Male Ward of the
Colwyn Harding
Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
The distraught woman, Sharon Harding, is adamant that after two surgeries and weeks of hospitalisation, her son shows little sign of recuperation, even though she is being told otherwise by Dr. Sheik Amir, the medical practitioner who has been attending to him.
She referred particularly to the wound located immediately below the passages that were created for him to pass waste, noting that it has become septic.
“The pus just coming up all the time… Today (Thursday) I saw the nurse take off the dressing, she open it out and she took gauze and sapped up all the inflammation and by time she turn around this thing just keep pouring out and it is very smelly. My son said it is very painful,” she related. “He is just lying there. He is helpless and he’s in a lot of pain.”
On the lighter side of things, the woman expressed gratitude to those who have donated colostomy bags, including Dr. Amir. She explained that her son requires at least six bags per day. The bags cost $3,000 each.
Still, she expressed that over the past days his condition seems to have taken a turn for the worst. “Yesterday (Wednesday) he was able to get up and sit for a while. He had his hair combed by my niece. But today he was not able to get up, and he said that he’s feeling weak,” she said.
According to the woman, this is in total contrast to the news that she has been given by Dr. Amir, who had been attending to the young man.
“Dr. Amir is telling me that he is progressing, he’s coming through and he is prepared to discharge him soon. And everybody that saw him yesterday (Wednesday) said that he is in a worse shape.”
She related that she has even taken the step to seek permission from the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Khan, to consult with another surgeon so as to get a second opinion on his condition.
In a letter addressed to Khan, the woman stated that she is confused by the conflicting reports on her son’s condition received from different doctors, and requests to have an opinion from an outside specialist.
Additionally, she stated that over the past days, her son had indicated “that he wasn’t getting any feeling in his left leg”. She said that on Tuesday, the numbness spread “throughout his entire left side.”
Apart from pain caused to the young man as a result of the injuries sustained from the brutal attack, the woman is perturbed that her son remains cuffed to his hospital bed although on Monday last, he was granted bail on his own recognizance.
According to his mother, officers from the Prison Service who are sent to Harding’s bed side to keep guard are not sent with keys to the cuffs.
“That thing supposed to come off since Monday (last). Since Monday he was bailed.”
Asked what she is prepared to do if her son is discharged from the hospital, the woman said, “I will take him home until I can get him out of the country.”
Meanwhile, represented by the Hughes, Fields and Stoby Law Firm, Harding has gone about the legal process of suing the Guyana Police Force for the assault and injury caused to her son as well as its inaction to complaints lodged immediately after the attack. She is demanding from the institution, compensation in the sum of $100Million.
According to the suit filed, “the Guyana Police Force has infringed the guaranteed constitutional rights of our client to protection from inhumane treatment and protection of his right to personal liberty.”
The document was sent out to the Commissioner of Police, Leroy Brumell, on Tuesday last and he is expected to respond today.
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