Bullet in head needn’t be life sentence

22/11/2015. Petros Mbedzi who was shot 30 years ago during the Mamelodi Massacre and still has a bullet lodged in his skull closes his eyes during an interview with the Pretoria News. Picture: Masi Losi

22/11/2015. Petros Mbedzi who was shot 30 years ago during the Mamelodi Massacre and still has a bullet lodged in his skull closes his eyes during an interview with the Pretoria News. Picture: Masi Losi

Published Nov 24, 2015

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Pretoria - The severe effects of Petros Mbedzi’s injuries from a shooting 30 years ago could have been kept at bay with better management of his medication and his social situation, Pretoria neurosurgeon Dr Frans Segwapa said on Monday.

He said the epileptic fits which would have accompanied the after-effects of the trauma to his head could have been controlled better.

“The mental health of a person with such an injury, with or without the bullet still intact, could be kept constant with medication and circumstances,” he said.

Among the important factors were the social setting, the food he ate and support he received.

“Depression can cause deterioration of mental health,” Segwapa said, adding that Mbedzi’s loss of memory, of time and place and the occasional removal from reality were not a natural progression of his situation.

The now-52-year-old from Mamelodi was hit by a bullet on the back of his head during a massacre of residents by the apartheid defence force and police 30 years ago. He was 21 and doing his matric when the armed forces opened fire on the 50 000 people marching for a better quality of life, and had remained in a coma for months afterwards.

Doctors had not removed the bullet lodged at the back of his head, and on Monday explained how leaving it in place was the better option. “Surgical intervention could have had detrimental effects to his health.”

The presence of the bullet did not, however, sentence a patient to a lower quality of life, and besides the epileptic seizures he should have led an almost normal life.

That he needed constant attention and could not be left alone had forced his wife Gladys to quit her job to be with him.

This meant less income for the household, and it had forced their 22-year-old child out of tertiary education and into a job so that she could contribute to the upkeep of the home.

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Pretoria News

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