Schoolboy rejected after losing his face to the fire

General News of Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Source: Starrfmonline.com

2019-03-13

Sunday Agonkurigo, a thirteen-year-old schoolboy, who lost his face at the time of the fire in the Upper East area, while he was only two weeks old, claims to have been arrested. helps society to consider it as a human being.

Born private, but attractive, it was a "love at first sight" while the neighbors took pleasure in taking him in his bed for a game or a kiss. But the fire of the night has left his face so disfigured and so horrible that it has lasted thirteen years of fright and rejection wherever it appears.

Starr News saw him in March this year at Goo-Atandaa KG Primary School in Bongo District during one of his problem-solving visits to a disadvantaged school.

"The first time I was badigned," said school principal Albert Atarizina, "this is the first person to approach me. I almost ran away.

"I'm really sorry for him. This makes the boy's life very miserable. And because of his condition, his friends do not want to play with him. I notice that when they are in clbad, people want to sit isolated from him. They do not want to sit near him because of the disease, "he said.

According to a member of the boy's family, Pascal Ayamga, the boy was alone in a straw-roofed vestibule when the fire broke out and engulfed the lonely hut at dusk.

His mother was fetching water not far away and her father, Akensaka, was returning from his home to answer the call of nature when he saw his house burning from afar. He rushed to the hut in flames and, rather ready to die than to watch his beloved cremated son alive, bravely ran through the red flames as the baby moaned.

He came out of the fire with the boy, both injured. The boy's face, back, waist, and hands were marked, and the fire had also tarnished his father's hands. His parents took him urgently to the nearest clinic for first aid, then took him to the Upper East Regional Hospital and Korle University Hospital. Where, as Ayamga says, the father, a local cattle trader, has used up all his savings to save his life. his firstborn.

"Years after leaving the hospital, he was sent to school. His comrades fled as if he were not a human being because of his eyes, because of his face. Personally, I advised him not to stop education because of these things, "Ayamga said.

Seeing Sunday's face directly is more disturbing than seeing it on photo paper or on an electronic screen. A distraught observer described facial ruin as the pinnacle of the power of a ruthless fire, if it is not handled well.

The scar on his face looks like "an adolescent monkey mask" stuck permanently to a human's face to get an effect. And like all masks, his eyes can not blink. This is because the fire has not spared the eyelids. His red and watery eyes are open 24 hours a day. And they are dangerously not closed even when he is asleep. The eyebrows were completely wiped and his nose was torn and mutilated by the same fire that left his right ear and his right fingers deformed.

The disfigurement, so early in his life, not only deprived his family of the knowledge of his true face, but it is also a barrier between him and his dream of bank manager.

"I want to be a bank manager tomorrow. But it hurts me to be like that today. I want someone to help me look like my friends, "said Sunday Starr News in third grade elementary school at Starr News.

He is currently wearing a pair of dark glbades donated by the Starr News Upper East regional correspondent to protect his eyes without eyelids from dust and to reduce the stigma caused by the scar in his face. Maybe the "safety glbades" of the moment would also help to bring his uncomfortable friends closer together, and, thanks to this desired company of friends at school and in the street, would restore him and keep him on the track. of his dream.

Sunday knows that only plastic surgery can change everything. His father and brother were raised by their father alone while their mother left her marriage in the middle of the crisis.

The once – happy hut seems isolated more than a decade after the devastating fire. An attempt was made to reshape the shaved structure with a new thatched roof as evidence, but the scar on the boy's face echoes misfortune and continues to torment his father who is now borrowing and struggling.

"At one point, some people shouted when they saw him and wanted to hurt him as he was not a human being. I arrived when I heard a noise and saved it. I take care of him and his younger brother with borrowed money and with the little that I have from my casual job. I was a small trader before the disaster. Now, my things are gone, "said his father.

Dr. Francis Odei-Ansong, one of Ghana's most notable orthopedic surgeons, told Starr News that the boy needed additional health care so that his condition would not worsen. He also urged the public not to stigmatize him, but rather to help him build his self-esteem "flowing" by showing him his love and support.

"Probably the face fell into the fire. He probably even inhaled carbon monoxide while his face was in the fire. He suffered a facial burn and may also have been injured by inhalation of the airways and lungs. When a person experiences a facial burn and is brought to the hospital, what kills her is often the inhalation burn. He was lucky to have survived.

"As he gets older, the scar on his face contracts, and as the scar contracts, it pulls the normal skin with it. You see that some parts of the mouth are dragged; so he has trouble closing it. He develops contractures on the face. As the eyelid rubs against the cornea because of the scar formation on the face, its vision would be blurred over time. You see that the eyeball is red. It develops a form of conjunctivitis by abrasion, "said Dr. Odei-Ansong.

He added, "It is the combination of charring and healing with contractures on the face that gives that look and people run away. This is nothing. He is a normal human being with a malformation and I do not think we should discriminate or dislike him. If people start to flee him and he finds himself isolated, that would not be good for his personal development. "

A burning candle would have fallen and set off the fire that would have turned the poor boy's face into a monstrous "monkey mask". Concerned about the chain of domestic fire accidents in the country, Dr. Odei-Ansong urged families to take more serious preventive measures at home, putting more emphasis on reparations of a gas detection system that a fire alarm gadget.

"If you had only one fire alarm device in the house, no alarm will be triggered in case of gas leakage. The fire alarm has no benefit to saving lives but property. We need a gas alarm because once the gas starts to leak, the alarm sounds and you handle it properly.

"If you go to some houses, the cylinder is in the room or in the kitchen; he flees; they placed a block on it and they cook. It's a dangerous thing that they do. The gas can fill the rooms and a spark would cause a fire to engulf the whole house. It is only safe to keep the bottles outside the house in a box and in a well-ventilated area, "he said.