–urges police to visit him in hospital to take a statement

GOLD miner Sadeek Muhammed, 27, of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, who was stabbed in the neck at Bartica, Region 7 on May 17 last, after spending eleven days in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), was discharged on May 29 but is back in hospital again. 

Muhammed, who suffered spinal injuries, has been impaired from his waist down and cannot use his feet. Speaking with this newspaper a week ago after he was readmitted to the GPHC, he said, “Meh feeling really sick and meh foot dem getting deader and deader.”
This newspaper first visited Muhammed on May 25, and was told by a medical staffer that he had suffered considerable nerve damage as a result of the stab he sustained in the neck. Since then he has been unable to move his right leg and remained stricken in bed in the Male Surgical Ward of the hospital under intense medical care. But three weeks later, he has been readmitted and both legs are now impaired.
Muhammed made his first trip to the gold mining interior just over two months ago and after receiving his first payment, travelled out to Bartica on Saturday, May 17, only to encounter the tragic incident that almost cost him his life.
He recalled that while in camp, he came to know a certain man, and they travelled out to Bartica on the same Saturday with the intention of spending two days there before returning to camp. Muhammed said he rented a room at a guest house known as ‘Cheap Shop’ and shared it with the man.
Muhammed said that later that afternoon, the man asked him for a loan of $5,000 to buy a cap and a vest, and offered to leave his cellular phone with him as security for the amount. Muhammed said he handed over the money and collected the phone, but never thought that the man had an ulterior motive.
Muhammed told this newspaper that he was out on the road later that evening when he met a friend, who lives at Third Avenue, Bartica. He said he was chatting with that person when his workmate from the mining camp crept up behind him and stabbed him in the neck. The attacker then quickly relieved him of the same cell-phone that had been lodged as security for the $5,000 loan and walked away.
However, residents in the neighbourhood who saw what had occurred demanded that he take the injured Muhammed to hospital.
The residents stopped a passing taxi and saw to it that the injured man’s assailant accompany him to the Bartica Hospital. But on arrival at the hospital, the assailant reportedly deposited the wounded man at the Accident and Emergency Unit and fled, without giving a report about the man’s injuries.
Word quickly circulated in the community, and the police were alerted and subsequently apprehended the alleged assailant at the Cool Breeze entertainment spot and took him into custody.
Muhammed says he understands that the matter was transferred to Georgetown, and that the accused was passed through the court late last month. He said he has since been trying to make contact with the investigating rank, whose name was given as Matthai, but was told that this policeman hade been transferred from Bartica to Georgetown.
Muhammed would like the police to know that he is warded in the Male Surgical Ward of the GPHC once more, and would like to give a statement on the matter. He is therefore appealing to the police to kindly give this matter some urgent attention.

(By Shirley Thomas)