Doctors veto surgery, mother says
Medical personnel yesterday decided against removing the bullet lodged in the chest of the young woman who was shot by an ex-boyfriend on Tuesday night, telling her relatives that the surgery could leave her paralysed.
“This ain’t mek no sense,” Sophia Pitman said yesterday, her voice muffled by an oxygen mask, as she lay on a hospital bed with tears in her eyes.
Pitman, 22, of La Grange, West Bank Demerara, and the mother of a two-year-old, was shot in the right-side breast by an ex-boyfriend on Tuesday night while making her way from work to her mother’s Robb Street home. She is now a patient in the High Dependency Unit of the Georgetown Hospital.
Sophia Pitman
Police yesterday said that no arrests have been made.
Her mother, Rosalyn John, told Stabroek News from her Robb Street home last night that after closely monitoring Sophia’s condition all day yesterday, doctors had told her that they would no longer be performing the operation to remove the bullet, which they had early said she had a fifty-fifty chance of surviving.
Pitman, who ended the relationship with her attacker some time back and moved on with someone else, could only manage a few words to relatives at the hospital yesterday. She was wearing an oxygen mask and there was a glass jar nearby, almost filled with fluid that had drained out of her body. Pitman was in distress, repeatedly shaking her head as she muttered words under her breath.
The worry over her daughter’s condition was evident on the face of John who had told this newspaper on the night of the incident that she was clueless as to what led to the attack. She was unaware of any grievances between Pitman and her ex-boyfriend, she said.
John said yesterday that what she has gathered was that two persons grabbed her daughter’s arms from behind, holding her still, while the suspect discharged a round, which hit her in the right-side breast.
This newspaper was told that the woman arrived at the hospital some 20 minutes after the incident in a terrible condition but doctors managed to stabilise her.
John said that earlier yesterday, the family was told by the nurses that the bullet was lodged in a bad place and if Pitman were taken to surgery she had a fifty-fifty chance of surviving. She said the nurses had advised them to get something for Pitman to eat and drink after which she would be observed.
John said Pitman had some food and drank some liquid but began crying out for pain. An injection was then administered to ease that discomfort.
It was much later yesterday, John said, that she was advised that a decision was made not to attempt to remove the bullet, since her daughter could be left paralyzed.
Meanwhile, she revealed that checks were made at the suspect’s North Road home, but he was not found. She said it is believed that he is hiding out in Linden.
In a statement, police said yesterday that they are investigating the shooting. According to police, the shooting occurred at 8 pm at the junction of Robb and Cummings streets, Bourda. Pitman was walking along the roadway when she was confronted by the man with whom she had recently ended a relationship. He pulled out a handgun and shot her to her right-side chest and escaped. Pitman was rushed to the hospital.
My sympathy goes out to this young woman. I sincerely hope that this miscreant is caught and severely punished along with his cohorts who should also be charged for attempted murder. There are things the judicial system should really pay attention to and one primary area is that of abuse to women. The Bahamas is now moving in the direction where one will soon be sentenced to life imprisonment for rape. The judiciary should take a page from these books.
So many guns on the road.i myself am afraid to get in a confrontation with anyone because these days you don’t know who is who…..
How these guns get into the country is anybody’s guess……….but i wanna know who is in charge of the airport..and the seaports??? If anyone can tell me who is in charge then we gonna know how all these guns are coming in to this country.
Barrels man, Barrels, and a bribe to look the other way… You can buy a “throw down “in Brooklyn for $100, and put it in a barrel and ship it to Guyana, pay a bribe to Customs, and you can make anybody leak.
Okay…. So we find out where the guns are coming from…. Then what? This issue is so complex that it will take more that identifying the origin or the weapons to resolve the issues they present in society. On a side note, are there any processes in place to track weapons by serial numbers in Guyana. Is theire any connectivity infrastructure to support tracking? Just curious…
CAN YOU TELL ME WHO WAS INCHARGE OF STEALING THOSE MISSING AK 47 FROM THE ARMY. IF YOU CAN THEN WE WILL KNOW WHO THE CULPRITS ARE.
This is not looking good for this girl,knowing what takes place at that hospital,I hope she will be ok,her mother should do a lot of praying at this time,she is in God’s hands!!
I AM A MEDICAL PERSON TO A CERTAIN LEVEL BUT NOT A DOCTOR, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO SOPHIA IF THE BULLET IS NOT REMOVED. THE DOCTORS HAVE GIVEN HER A FIFTY FIFTY CHANCE OF SURVIVAL, THEY THEN SAID THAT AFTER THE SURGERY SHE MAY BE LEFT PARALYZE. WHICH ONE IS PREFERRED THE BULLET TO REMAIN IN HER OR TO BE PARALYZE. AND WHERE DID THIS BULLET LODGE THAT THE DOCTORS DID NOT DISCLOSED. IS IT CLOSE TO HER HEART, WHERE IS IT.
I HAVE BEGIN TO REALISE THAT SOPHIA WILL NEED OVERSEAS HELP
I totally agree with you, i am for life and i would hate to see this young lady lose her like, this is rediculous it seems like they are just leaving her there to die comme on these doctors could do better than this, this is human live we are talking about here, mom take her to a private hospital and try to get the best help for your daughter, remember she has a child to take care of she is needed in this world. Sn please let me know how i can assist with funds for this young lady.
Again i an for life.
You are correct in your diagnosis, as well as your prognosis, a fund needs to be put in place to facilitate sending her overseas for immediate medical treatment. Until ALL guns are outlawed, this will continue,,,,remember that the only uses guns have in our society is to kill,,,,you can’t make love to it.
Maybe
i agree with you, they did not say what would happen if the leave the bullet.
When caught, this criminal would have to spend a lot christmases behind the bars.
It started with simply pushing and slapping around women, then the abuse evolved to beating them with sticks and other implements, next was to carve them up with knives, but that was all in the pass…………………….. The latest technology is the GUN!
What do we as a society expect, since we failed to stem this trend of abuse from jump-street?
We thought that beating women was harmless, a necessary “rod of correction” to be used at will, but now we are have elevated to this stage where we kill them as a matter of convenience and or personal gratification………………..gone are the days when a lil black eye and buss mouth did the trick.
The bigger question is what would we as a civilised society do to protect our women folk?……………………keep me posted!
i don’t understand some of those poorly educated men,the woman don’t want you leave her alone,she is not the only fish in the sea,now look what he did to that young woman,just plain ignorance!!!!…….i would like the police to find him and give him a good trashing,pittiful…………..to they young lady i wish you a speedy recovery,and may god bless!!!!!.
Senseless indeed.
Something needs to be done for Sophia and very quick. The Doctors in Guyana….huh….I don’t want to say anything. Sopha has a better chance of coming through safe if she is given the chance to be operated on overseas.
Now that I have seen her picture, I can understand why the ex wanted to hold on like a leech on Sophia. Why he had to shoot at her? Couldn’t he have gotten another pretty woman? Seems like “ ram goat bite him, suh e cyaan get wan nex gyal”.
Leo Rojo
My advise to this family….get a second opinion and see if your daugheer can have the surgery in T&T or someplace outside GY. That being said… I find it difficult to fully rationalize the mother’s explanation of this incident. The mother stated ” two persons grabbed her daughter’s arms from behind, holding her still, while the suspect discharged a round, which hit her in the right-side breast.” Now..if that is true, then tose two accompliaces are either “extremely brave or very stupid to be standing behind this woman as her ex discharge a round at her. That does not make sense to me and that did not happen. Sorry .. the two individuals were not there…it was onyy him and her. Also, why the doctor did not sit down with this family and tell them exactly where the bullet is lodge and why removing it would pose a danger to this woman’s life instead of having the family being told by nurses that the bullet was lodged in a “bad place”. That explanation does nothing to ease their anxiety. They need specifics. Period!
Congratulations SWAT..Out thoughts are exactly alike, there is no way I can see the accused companions standing behind this young lady when the possibility of a bullet passing through her may also hit them. I do not know what happened but something is not right. I honestly wish the law get hold of this or these annimals and treat them accordingly. To the family of this beautiful young lady PLEASE seek detailed specific answers to your daughter’s injuries. The doctors should take the family in councelling with details and exrays explaining precicely why it is dangerous, and as professionals they should recommend further evaluation if they are not equipt to handle such a case.