Amputee, 18, Still Waits For Justice�Whilst Leg Rots

18 �years-old amputee, Jerome Afaglo, is going through excruciating pain as a result of an accident he survived last year whilst working for a Tema-based factory, Gravita Ghana Limited, an Indian company that recycles car batteries into alloy. So severe is the injury that his amputated leg has started rotting, thereby affecting some vital parts of his body. This has rendered the poor boy restless. Speaking to the New Crusading GUIDE reporter at the Tema High Court, teary eyed Jerome, said, �Madam, sometimes I feel like ending it all by taking my life, instead of waiting to die slowly in pain, looking at the stress my poor mother is also going through because of my calamity! Apart from the fact that my hopes and aspirations becoming a National Football Star I also feel in my body that I am dying slowly because this pain has affected my eyes, waist, spinal cord, ears, and all parts of my body. I have even undergone a second operation due to bone infection. Madam, please if there is any way you could help me and my poor mother, kindly do so. Now my only hope is in the final judgment of the court over my compensation. Narrating his ordeal, Jerome said when he completed his Junior High education in a village in - Ahunda- Boso Roman Catholic school in the Volta Region, he decided to come to Accra in search of greener pasture to aid him save some funds towards his Senior High education; since he had lost his father and his mother is only a petty fruits trader in Tema. He said living in the village after his JHS education was to like a dream end, since he had nothing to live on or do to earn him any money. Jerome said he therefore moved to Tema where her mother resides and decided to move around for something to do. According to him, it was upon one of his search for help that somebody directed him to the Gravita Company Ltd, which was on the day, August 2013, recruiting workers. According to the amputee he was immediately employed on August 4, 2013, and asked to work in the company without any orientation, and as young and desperate as he was, he jumped for the offer and stated working at a center where they removed some chemicals from the car batteries for processing and he worked at that sector for four (4) days. �On the 10th of August 2013, when I got to work, I was asked to move from my sector to go and operate on the machine which processes the batteries without giving me any training or guidelines for safety. I was very scared but also afraid that I could be sacked when I complain. I worked on the machine till around 4am. Suddenly, the heavy machine exploded and fell on me, landing directing on my right leg without anyone to rescue me. I started screaming for my colleagues to come to my rescue but they could not lift the heavy machine, so they called for extra help from the security around� he narrated. According to Jerome, even after his rescue, he was left lying in a pool of blood for many hours until the company�s Manager-Mr. Jangir Kumar Marnesh, arrived from Mataheko in Accra before he was rushed to the Korle- Bu Teaching Hospital, when it was rather too late, thereby requiring the immediate amputation of his right leg to save his life without the knowledge of any relative, because the company refused to call to inform his mother- Madam Grace Kumavi who was at church on that day. This paper gathered that, the company was giving the victim GH� 5 per day when he was on admission at the hospital for sixteen (16) days during and after his amputation. The story continuous that although the company paid for the medical bills and promised to take care of his feeding, fix him an artificial leg, and see him through his education, it turned out after his admission that the promises were mere rhetorics. Later, somewhere January 2014, Jerome said he and his now jobless mother were cash trapped so much so that they could not so he called the Manager and pleaded for some money for feeding and his up keep. He said, it was upon his plea that the Manager told him that he had gone to deposit a cheque of GHC 11, 000.00, for his feeding till he gets better when they Gravita management could fulfill all its promises to him. But ever since, the company has not even checked on his health or visited. Upon hearing the Jerome�s rather pathetic tragedy, a good Samaritan, lawyer Mathias Kwasi Yakah, volunteered to file a suit against the Gravita Company for the payment of compensation to the boy to enable him have proper medical attention and also help put his life back on track. The Gravita Company has nonetheless also laid claims that the GHC 11,000.00 was full compensation the company had paid for the lost of his leg and the damage caused his life, and has nothing more to pay to him as any compensation. Back and forth, the case landed in court and the Tema High Court, presided over by His lordship Justice Adjei Frimpong, has ruled in favor of Jerome and his lawyer, instructing that the company pays adequate compensation to Jerome for the damages caused him. Jerome and his lawyer are claiming a compensation of GHC 5,000,000.00 from Gravita, as his lifetime compensation. The assessment of damages caused the boy for his compensation had been adjourned to Monday November 17, 2014, at the Tema High Court. Meanwhile, lawyers of Gravita, has filed a motion to the court to set aside the earlier judgment ruled in favor of Master Jerome, on grounds that �the Defendant entered conditional appearance on the 18th of August, 2014, and that the accident which compelled the Plaintiff to institute the action was reported to the Metropolitan Labour Department who computed Workmen Compensation of GHC II, 016.00 under PNDC Law 187 and was duly paid to the Plaintiff.� Meanwhile, case has been adjourned to November 17, 2014, to either accept the Defendant�s motion or access damages for due compensation to Master Jerome who is awaiting his fate. Stay tuned