The victim, Mr Ishmael Tshabalala was attacked following a
fierce fight with a rival suitor resulting in him sustaining life-threatening
injuries.
During the fight, Mr Tshabalala was stabbed with a spear in
the head and the spear was stuck in his skull.
Dr Garikai Mwale, a specialist neurosurgeon at the hospital
who was among the doctors who conducted a surgical operation to remove the
spear, said Mr Tshabalala was lucky to be alive after sustaining
life-threatening injuries.
“The patient had a penetrating skull injury coming from the
front and going out to the side. It passed through the bone, the brain and went
to the other side. The patient sustained a serious injury but fortunately when
he came to the hospital he was fully conscious,” he said.
Dr Mwale said they
managed to stabilise the patient and took a CT (computerised tomography) scan
as they prepared for his surgical operation.
“We managed to operate on the patient. The spear also
encroached onto one of the bigger veins, one of the sinuses but we managed to
control the bleeding,” he said.
Dr Mwale said the patient was yesterday in the Intensive
Care Unit but was stable. He said Mr Tshabalala was lucky as the spear missed
all his vital organs.
“Severe force was used to penetrate bone in two places and
he is very fortunate to be alive. He is fortunate in that the weapon missed all
the major blood vessels in the brain,” he said.
Dr Mwale said they are concerned with admissions emanating
from violent crimes.
He said almost every weekend they attend to patients with
injuries from assaults.
“Doctors who work at
the weekends usually attend to many cases of individuals injured from assaults
by weapons such knobkerries or stabbing by knives. This is quite a big
problem,” said Dr Mwale.
He said such cases were straining limited resources at the
hospital.
“When Mr Tshabalala
came we were supposed to attend to a patient with a brain tumor but we had to
postpone the surgical operation to attend to Mr Tshabalala since his case was
an emergency,” said Dr Mwale.
He said he was the only neurosurgeon at the hospital and
generally the hospital has few doctors who at times are overwhelmed by demand
for their services.
Mpilo Central Hospital chief executive officer Dr Narcacius
Dzvanga said as health authorities they were
worried by increased cases of violence leading to injuries and sometimes
death.
He blamed widespread drug and alcohol abuse which he said
needs to be addressed urgently.
“There is a lot of substance abuse out there among the
youth hence the increased cases of violence.
We witness very frightening cases of people coming to the
hospital with spears stuck in their heads,” said Dr Dzvanga.
Sources said Mr Tshabalala and is assailant were fighting
over a woman.
“The case is under police investigation and these guys are
small scale miners in Inyathi who were fighting over a woman,” said the source.
Chronicle
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