PAUL ORUDE, Bauchi
Seventeen-year-old Alkassim Ibrahim, the only student who survived the road accident, which claimed the lives of 20 other students and two teachers of Government Day Secondary School (GDSS), Misau, Bauchi State, is still in a coma, Sunday Sun investigation has revealed.
The teenager and the others were traveling to Kano State for an excursion a fortnight ago, when the commercial bus that was conveying them had a head on collision with a trailer at Gaya village, Kano State, killing the students and teachers in the process.
Alkassim, an Arts student in SS3 B, survived the tragic accident, along with one teacher, Inuwa Mohammed.
It was learnt that the car crash happened at a terrible portion of the road around Gaya, where the students’ vehicle had a head-on collision with the on-coming trailer. Right on the spot, 20 students and two teachers died. Alkassim and Inuwa were the only survivors.
Sunday Sun learnt from Usman, a Physics teacher at the GDSS, Misau, Alkassim and his teacher, Inuwa Mohammed, were first rushed to General Hospital, Gaya, and later taken to the Federal Medical Centre, (FMC), Azare, from where he was referred to Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital, Kano.
While Inuwa has made substantial recovery, Alkassim is still in a coma and is being closely monitored by doctors and surgeons in preparation for a possible brain surgery.
His elder brother, Usman Ibrahim, appealed to all and sundry to continue praying earnestly for his younger brother, so that he could come out of unconsciousness.
In a brief interaction with Sunday Sun, he said in voice laden with emotion and concern: “My brother has been unconscious since the accident happened. He cannot do anything; it is only his eyes that open and close. His condition is not stable. If you talk, he will be looking at the direction of the sound of your voice but he cannot say anything.”
Usman, who visited his brother at the hospital in Kano told Sunday Sun that the X-ray done on Alkassim’s skull, showed that blood entered his brain from the damaged skull in multiple places.
“Blood entered four different sections in the brain and just like the pattern inside, scattered in different direction. But there is hope that the doctors can handle it. They are working on his nerves to respond before they carry out their operation, they are monitoring him now,” he said.
Usman said although he didn’t speak with the medical team himself on the condition of Alkassim, there were feelers that his brother might be flown abroad.
“But right now they are managing and monitoring him to know whether to carry out the operation early or not, but they are waiting for him to respond,” he added.
“He is regaining consciousness bit by bit. He also got injuries on the backbone and on the left side. His eyes open and close but the problem is that he can’t talk up till now.
“The government has come into it. The governor and his cabinet went there and hopefully, my brother can get the best medical attention to survive.”
He recalled the initial difficulty the family faced in the bid to move Alkassim to Kano: “The problem was that we had to pay for an ambulance to convey my brother from FMC, Azare to Kano. It was the intervention of Ambassador Yunusa Yahaya, who contributed the money that was used to offset the N25,000 ambulance fee before my brother could be moved to Kano. Even in such critical situation, the management of the hospital was helpless.”
He expressed gratitude to the state government and other well-meaning individuals who are now coming to the aid of his brother so that he can survive.
Usman said on the fateful morning before the students and their teachers left for the ill-fated excursion, he saw his younger brother and his friends in a happy mood. They were taking selfies and making light jokes without any premonition that the end was about to come for almost all of them.
“His dream is to join the army and I told him if his dream must come through, he must take Geography seriously and pass it well,” Usman said.
As Alkassim lies unconscious in the hospital, the one wish of family and friends is that he should not die.