The young woman viciously attacked while attending the Medical University of the Americas in Nevis says she was stabbed a total of 16 times.
Samar Haroun Courtesy thestar.com
27-year-old Samar Haroun, who migrated to Canada from Oman as a teen, recounted the chilling 1 October incident to the Toronto Star. She had only started school in Nevis in September; her apartment was in a building that housed other medical students.
Thestar.com reported that when the student arrived home after 12am the fateful night, she was attacked by a knife wielding male who had been hiding in a closet in her bedroom. The assailant stabbed at her repeatedly, injuring her face, neck, chest, hands, back. Haroun pleaded for her life and bravely fought back.
Rescue came when neighboring students heard her screams and pounded on her apartment door. The man fled the apartment through the bedroom window. What followed after the attack was almost as harrowing, thestar.com reported.
“There was no doctor at the hospital when she arrived, blood spurting from her back. A wound to her cheek had cut right through, sliced her tongue. The bone in her chin was showing… It took perhaps 30, 45 minutes to get into surgery. X-rays were taken, but no CT scans, no MRIs — neither are available in the country. Haroun came out of sedation in a filthy recovery room with about eight others,” thestar.com article read.
Getting to St. Kitts in order to fly back to Canada on Oct 4 was another unpleasant ordeal, as getting the MUA to contact her family had been. She was immediately hospitalized on arrival in Canada.
Her injuries, which she claimed the doctors in Nevis told her were “superficial”, turned out to be “an injured carotid and a dissected vertebral artery”. Haroun suffered a stroke less than two weeks later but is recovering, physically.
She expressed disappointment in the way the school handled the matter and the medical attention she received on Nevis. She feels hers should serve as a cautionary tale for others looking to attend medical schools in the Caribbean.
Nevis Police acted swiftly though and days later a young Jamaican national, Shane Shorter, was arrested at the RLB Airport attempting to fly to Jamaica. He was charged with attempted murder and burglary. Nevis’ Minister of Tourism and Health on the island, Hon. Mark Brantley told The Observer he had seen the Toronto Star story.
“It is a deeply regrettable situation but we acted promptly and caught the culprit.”
by LK Hewlett for the St Kitts Nevis Observer
