Man survives spear attack as doctors perform succe...

Man survives spear attack as doctors perform successful surgery

Zim Now Writer

An artisanal miner from Inyathi in Bubi District, Ishmael Tshabalala, who had a spear thrust into his skull is lucky to have survived after he was saved by doctors at Mpilo Central Hospital.

Tshabalala was attacked following a fierce fight with a rival suitor resulting in him sustaining life-threatening injuries.

During the fight, Tshabalala was struck with a spear on the head and the spear was stuck in his skull.

Dr Garikai Mwale, a specialist neurosurgeon at the hospital who was among the doctors who conducted a surgical operation to remove the spear said Mr Tshabalala was lucky to be alive after sustaining life-threatening injuries.

“The patient had a penetrating skull injury coming from the front and going out to the side. It passed through the bone, the brain and went to the other side. The patient sustained a serious injury but fortunately when he came to the hospital, he was fully conscious,” he said.

Dr Mwale said they managed to stabilise the patient and took a computerised tomography scan as they prepared for his surgical operation.

“We managed to operate on the patient. The spear also encroached onto one of the bigger veins and one of the sinuses but we managed to control the bleeding.

“Severe force was used to penetrate bone in two places and he is very fortunate to be alive. He is fortunate in that the weapon missed all the major blood vessels in the brain.

“Doctors who work at the weekends usually attend to many cases of individuals injured from assaults by weapons such as knobkerries or stabbing by knives. This is quite a big problem. Such cases are straining limited resources at the hospital.

“When Mr Tshabalala came, we were supposed to attend to a patient with a brain tumour but we had to postpone the surgical operation to attend to Mr Tshabalala since his case was an emergency,” Dr Mwale said.

He was the only neurosurgeon at the hospital and generally the hospital has few doctors who at times are overwhelmed by demand for their services.

Mpilo Central Hospital chief executive officer, Dr Narcacius Dzvanga said as health authorities they were worried by increased cases of violence leading to injuries and sometimes death.

He blamed widespread drug and alcohol abuse which he said needs to be addressed urgently.

“There is a lot of substance abuse out there among the youth hence the increased cases of violence.

“We witness very frightening cases of people coming to the hospital with spears stuck in their heads,” said Dr Dzvanga.