Girl, 9, lives with bullet in her thigh
On November 20 last year, Teresa Vinkhumbo, nine, woke up early to do some household chores. At around 5.45am, she took a bucket to draw water from a tap outside the house.
While the bucket was filling up, Teresa felt something pierce her right thigh. She screamed in pain, awakening her aunt Chrissy Mhango, 39, who had been sleeping in the house.
When Mhango rushed outside to see what was happening, she found Teresa lying down, groaning in pain.
Teresa had been accidentally shot at by Rumphi Police station officer Senior Superintendent George Kaleso, who had borrowed a greener rifle with four rounds from his office to shoot at a stray dog.
According to Kaleso, the stray dog with rabies used to go to his house to bite a puppy and when he tried to shoot it that day, the ball went astray and hit Teresa.
Hospitals have failed to remove that bullet ball from Teresa’s thigh and she will probably have to live with it for the rest of her life.
Today, Teresa survives on pain killers and sometimes sleeping pills. She walks with a limp.
But Kaleso claims the girl is fine, and that Teresa’s family accepted that it was an accident and there is nothing more he can do.
A report from Rumphi Police dated November 21 2018 states that Teresa was 15 metres away inside a reed fence at her home where she was drawing water, while the targeted dog was about five metres away.
It reads in part: “On the said date and time, the dog came and the reporter saw it. He tried to shoot it and the ball which came from the bullet went astray and hit on the right hip of a girl called Trizza Vinkhumbo.”
She was taken to Rumphi District Hospital and later referred to Mzuzu Central Hospital where an X-ray showed that the bullet could not be removed.
A diagnosis report from Rumphi District Hospital shows that Teresa “had a gun shot (accident) on the right lateral aspect of the right upper thigh.”
“Pelvic X-ray revealed a small bullet on the proximal aspect of the right femur. Referral to Mzuzu Central Hospital was done where surgeons reviewed and advised to leave the bullet until when need for evacuation arises,” it reads.
Life after November 20
But Teresa, in an interview in Mhango’s company, says she cannot live life as she used to.
Says the soft-spoken Teresa: “I don’t play anymore, because if I do, I feel serious pain at night. Even walking to school is difficult.”
Mhango says her niece’s life has not been easy.
“In December, for some weeks, she would cry the whole day, and when I went to complain to Kaleso, he told me to give him the hospital passport book, which I did.
“He later came back with piriton [an antihistamine that may cause drowsiness], but said he would keep the book. We then started giving her piriton for her to find sleep. This went on until January. For now, she just gets pain killers like Panadol,” she says.
Mhango alleges that police officers have been visiting her house telling her not to pursue the issue further.
She claims: “They said if I get into trouble one day, they will not help me, so I should not pursue the matter. But what will I do with Teresa?
“Will she live with the bullet for life? Where is the police report because they are refusing to give it to me? Teresa had to repeat a class because she missed so many classes, and can no longer walk with ease.”
Teresa has always been on position one in her class but is repeating Standard 4 at Mayembe Primary School in Rumphi.
But Kaleso argued in an interview on Saturday that some civil society organisations (CSOs) are influencing Mhango.
Sounding rather agitated, Kaleso claimed the girl is fine, and that when he asked the family on what he could do, they told him that “they understood that it was an accident and nothing more!”
Said Kaleso: “I know some CSOs are trying to influence the lady. In fact, Mhango herself comes to tell us that some CSOs want the issue to be pursued.
“I tell you that no police officer has ever threatened that family; I didn’t get the health passport book. All I know is that the girl is fine.” n
