AFTER 24 hours travelling, Heather Heeles had fallen asleep in the minibus that was taking her through Ghana on what was meant to be a trip of a lifetime to West Africa.
The 47-year-old school secretary was on an exchange visit for staff from two York primary schools to work in their partner school in Ghana, St Paul’s in Begoro.
Despite raising concerns that travelling through the night went against the safety guidance issued by the Foreign Office, the group from St Mary’s Church of England Primary School and Westfield Primary school were reassured it was safe and ushered onto a dilapidated bus.
Sadly, Mrs Heeles’s safety fears were realised with horrific consequences. The bus crashed into another vehicle, sending an object flying through the window she was resting against as she slept.
The glass slashed her arm to the bone, taking off all of the skin from the shoulder down. It took more than two hours to get the mother-of-two to a hospital, by which time her injuries were so severe doctors advised amputation but, amidst the chaos of the hospital emergency unit, a brief moment of clarity meant Mrs Heeles could save her arm.
One of the group remembered that a parent at St Mary’s was a surgeon, they managed to contact him and he was able to advise the hospital on the necessary course of action to stabilise Mrs Heeles, so she could be flown back to the UK for treatment.
“It was horrific. I was losing so much blood I thought I was going to die,” she said. “To start with they couldn’t get the driver to stop to carry out first aid, we then tried to find a hospital but when we got to the nearest clinic the doctor was not there.
“When he arrived he said he could not help and I had to go to the hospital in Accra – two hours away. They used cardboard to wrap around my arm until I got there.”
She said she struggles to remember much of what happened – but on arrival asked for a blood transfusion herself.
“I think my body just went into shock – they said I was very calm and in control. They just didn’t know what to do with me. I had to ask for blood transfusions because I could feel myself dying.
“My arm had swollen up to the size of a leg. They wanted to amputate but the teachers who were with me begged them not to.”
Although she survived, Mrs Heeles will never regain full use of her arm and only has feeling in three fingers. She spent nearly six weeks at Leeds General Infirmary and has had 23 operations.
Mrs Heeles has also been left with osteomyelitis as a result of a water-borne bacteria infection. Doctors think it may have been caused by the water used to wash her wound in Ghana. The condition means bones in her arm have crumbled.
Furthermore the drugs used to treat her infection have destroyed the hairs in her ear canal, meaning she will have balance problems for the rest of her life.
She now uses a wheelchair, or a crutch over short distances, and has had to retire from work.
Mrs Heeles claims shambolic organisation of the trip put her in danger – and they should never have been on the road in the first place.
“All the Foreign Office guidance states that visitors should not travel overnight in Ghana,” she said. “It also warns that you shouldn’t use rural roads. We were doing both. We weren’t even given emergency numbers in case of an accident.
“This has ruined my life. I can’t work and my children have to help out caring for me. My family have been a wonderful support, but this just shouldn’t have happened. We shouldn’t have been on that road.”
source: yorkshirepost.co.uk
