Online Reporter
YOU really have to give it to 43-year-old Chipiwa Majasi for her sheer confidence in executing a medical procedure she was entirely unfamiliar with.
On March 5, Majasi — of Village 3, Kugutakurima, under Chief Mposi, in Mberengwa — was invited by a distressed mother who wanted her child Ruvarashe Mafikeni’s speech problem to be corrected.
She duly obliged.
Armed with a sharp razor blade and a false sense of certainty, Majasi proceeded to cut the lower membrane of the child’s tongue before leaving.
The 18-month-old toddler subsequently fell asleep. Around 2pm, the mother found her unresponsive.
In panic, she rushed her to Mberengwa District Hospital, where the minor was pronounced dead.
The matter was reported to the police, leading to Majasi’s arrest.
The results of the post-mortem were not quite surprising: haemorrhagic shock, sublingual artery laceration and tongue injury.
The High Court sitting in Gweru was left with no option but to sentence the quack to 10 years behind bars for culpable homicide.
However, two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour, leaving an effective eight-year custodial sentence.
So, Majasi’s surgical career lasted one house call.
It is a painful lesson to all parents to stop letting people perform DIY (do it yourself) surgery on toddlers.
Speech problems are not fixed by slicing the tongue.
They are fixed by speech therapists, doctors and professionals who know where the arteries are.
And to everyone else: If someone offers to solve a speech problem with a blade, the only thing you should cut is contact with them.
