“James Town Bullion Van driver responding to treatment,” – Surgeon
The driver of the bullion van which was attacked by robbers last Monday, June 14, 2021, is responding to treatment, according to a surgeon at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
A report filed by Accra-based JoyNews indicates that the 35-year-old victim, Eric Okyere completed his surgery a few hours after he was rushed in. The surgeon, Dr. Fredrick Kwarteng mentioned that several pellets were retrieved from around his chest area, limbs as well as forearms.
“Our assessment shows that the bullet had penetrated the chest wall and damaged vessels and was bleeding heavily into the chest. He also had bullets in the thoracic spine and then also the gunshot injury damaged the right hand.”
“There were pallets in the whole of the right upper limb, in the arm and the forearm. As soon as he was brought, though he was fully conscious, he was drowsy and he was in shock with very low blood pressure. His blood pressure was about 80 systolic and 50 diastolic. So it meant he was in severe shock and we started resuscitation,” Dr. Kwarteng told JoyNews.
He further revealed that the victim entered a state of emergency when his blood pressure kept dropping despite the constant blood transfusion he was receiving. It was later detected that he was bleeding from his chest.
“We tried to stabilize him, now in the process of resuscitation, we noticed that even though we were giving him many fluids and blood transfusion, his blood pressure kept dropping and so we did further evaluation and realized he was bleeding actively in the chest and had accumulated a lot of blood in the chest which would have been detrimental to his survival. So as an emergency procedure, we put the chest tube into the chest to drain the blood but we realized that whiles we were draining the blood, he was still bleeding profusely in the chest.
“So yesterday in the night, around 9 pm he was rushed to the theatre by the Cardiothoracic surgeon where he had a thoracotomy, in other words, a surgery that opens the chest, to stop all the bleeding points and to be stabilized. So as we speak he had surgery yesterday and he is fairly stable but he is still under recovery watch,” the doctor added.
Eric Okyere was one of some under persons who came under fire when armed robbers attacked a bullion van with motorbikes and fired sporadically. A police officer who was escorting the van, Constable General Emmanuel Osei died instantly. Another bystander, Afua Badu also died from the gunshots.
The IGP has pledged to leave no stone unturned until the perpetrators are apprehended.
Source: JoyNews
