Kigali nurse battles for her life after acid attack

January 11, 2012, will forever remain deeply etched in the mind of Vestina Nyiransabimana. On the fateful day, her jilted lover allegedly attacked her with acid pouring it on her face and chest.The 36-year old, who is a mother of two and a resident of Nyarugenge, Gitega cell, Kigali City, has spent close to four months at University Central Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), writhing in excruciating pain. Besides the serious burns on her face and all over her chest, she can hardly breathe properly as the acid considerably damaged her nostrils. Furthermore, her eyesight has been affected, particularly the left eye. Nyiransabimana, who was divorced from her first marriage remarried through a civil marriage on December 12, 2011 with the church wedding due for February 12, 2012. Agonisingly, she prefers not to mention her husband’s name (although he is commonly known as Dadi) for ‘security reasons.’Nyiransabimana, a nurse at CHUK for the past 14 years explains how it all unfolded as she gasps for breath. “It was around 7:00pm when he came to my house with an airtime card and asked me to load it for him on my phone so that he could call someone. He then asked me to step out of the sitting room to converse with the person on the other side of the line,” Nyiransabimana solemnly narrates.“I was busy loading the airtime on my way out when he reached for something like a container he had hidden below the stairs on the entrance of the house and poured the acid into my face. “The last statement I recall him utter was ‘You turned down my marriage proposal because I’m poor, now you will also turn out to be a beggar on the streets and you feel what it means to be poor.’ I screamed and by the time my neighbours came to my rescue, he had driven off in a car which was parked nearby. Some people claim to have seen him enter the car before it sped off.” Nyiransabimana was immediately rushed to hospital and the case reported to Muhima Police Station. Besides her painful ordeal, fear seems to have impinged on members of her immediate family, especially her young daughter who dreads going anywhere alone. “I don’t sleep because I’m scared. He (suspect) has called me three times using a telephone line from a neighbouring country, mocking me and ‘bragging’ that he knows everything I’m going through. I’m even scared of the unknown people who come to visit me at the hospital,” Nyiransabimana grimly explains. Police Spokesperson Superintendent Theos Badege says efforts to trace the suspect were underway.“We are aware of the case and still investigating it. Even if the suspect is out of the country, we shall go through Interpol to track him. There is no worry for the lady because she is under protection and she is monitored,” Badege explained, stressing that Nyiransabimana is in no danger. “I think they are too scared but the suspect doesn’t have the capacity to commit a crime again and again,” he said, appealing to people who could provide leads to report to the nearest police station. Dr. Vijay Obed, a plastic surgeon, who is part of the Intercontinental Medical Mission from India, told The New Times Nyiransabimana was admitted with 47 per cent acid burns. “Acid burns are generally deep, and they don’t heal by dressings alone. There is a stage when the burns are dressed and, thereafter, the wound is sealed through skin grafting,” Dr. Vijay explains. “Skin grafting has already been done in her case. However, she needs more treatment because she has started getting contractions on her lip, eyelid and the neck,” On the skin grafting process, skin tissue was removed from Nyiransabimana thighs and legs and patched on her face and chest, especially in areas with the deep burns that she had lost a lot of body tissue. “After a few days when the scars and the tissue contractions become mature, they will need to release the scars in corrective surgery.

National

Kigali nurse battles for her life after acid attack