A surgeon at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has stated that the driver of the bullion van attacked by robbers at James Town on Monday is responding to treatment.
According to Dr Fredrick Kwarteng, the 35-year-old victim, Eric Okyere, underwent surgery some hours after he was rushed to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
He further revealed that several pellets were retrieved from his chest, limbs and forearms.
“Our assessment shows that the bullet had penetrated the chest wall and damaged vessels and was bleeding heavily into the chest. He also had bullets in the thoracic spine and then also the gunshot injury damaged the right hand.
“There were pallets in the whole of the right upper limb, in the arm and the forearm. As soon as he was brought, though he was fully conscious, he was drowsy and he was in shock with very low blood pressure. In fact, his blood pressure was about 80 systolic and 50 diastolic. So it meant he was in severe shock and we started resuscitation.
“We tried to stabilise him, now in the process of resuscitation, we noticed that even though we were giving him many fluids and blood transfusion, his blood pressure kept dropping and so we did further evaluation and realized he was bleeding actively in the chest and had accumulated a lot of blood in the chest which would have been detrimental to his survival. So as an emergency procedure, we put the chest tube into the chest to drain the blood but we realized that while we were draining the blood, he was still bleeding profusely in the chest.
“So yesterday in the night, around 9:pm he was rushed to the theatre by the Cardiothoracic surgeon where he had thoracotomy, in other words surgery that opens the chest, to stop all the bleeding points and to be stabilised. So as we speak he had surgery yesterday and he is fairly stable but he is still under recovery watch,” he told JoyNews’ Manuel Koranteng, Tuesday.
On June 14, 2021, a police officer, Emmanuel Osei and a hawker, Afua Badu, were attacked by a group of armed robbers who trailed the bullion van in a taxi and on a motorbike and upon arrival at a less crowded location, fired indiscriminately, killing them instantly.
Meanwhile, the IGP, James Oppong-Boanuh has pledged that no stone will be left unturned in his quest to ensure the killers of Constable General, Emmanuel Osei, are arrested.
He added that the police have deployed many security personnel on the roads to intensify patrols.