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The Ghanaian woman, Ama Sumani, who was deported from a UK hospital while receiving dialysis treatment for badly damaged kidneys, last week received GH¢3775 cash donation from Accra-based CITl FM.The amount is to help pay for her medical treatment at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra."I'm happy. God is wonderful," a teary-eyed Ama Sumani said after receiving the GH¢3775 in cash and cheques from CITI FM.
Madam Sumani looked up and said "I am in God's hands", as tears began running down her face."How long will I live? What are my chances? I cannot say. I have no one here with me to lead me through such questions, to speak to the doctors for me."Ms Sumani was removed from Cardiff’s University Hospital a few weeks back by UK immigration officials because her visa had expired. The 39-year-old widowed mother of two was taken in a wheelchair from the hospital by three immigration officials and flown to Accra.Suffering from malignant myeloma, for which she was receiving dialysis treatment at the University Hospital of Wales, it was a journey many condemned at the time as nothing short of a death sentence for a woman whose crime was to have overstayed her visa.Ama Sumani, who had no funds to cover the cost of dialysis in Ghana, without which she would join her ancestors, said her future seemed bleak. Anonymous well-wishers have since contributed to the cost of her treatment, but just for three months.The cancer she is suffering from, malignant myeloma, would ordinarily be treated with a bone marrow transplant, but she was not entitled to the treatment.Her legs and face are swollen, and with each slight movement she winces in pain. Lying on her hospital bed in Ghana, there are moments when Ama Sumani appears incoherent. Then it all becomes too overwhelming and tears roll down her cheeks. "I wish I was still in Cardiff," she says quietly. "Why could they not have kept me there? Why could they not have treated me and then sent me back?"Ama hails from the northern part of Ghana and her family is there but unable to help her. "When I leave the hospital I cannot walk. I am so tired, so dizzy, my blood pressure is too high," she lamented."I tried to make some soup but I was too weak. I need to pay somebody to look after me, but I do not know people in Accra. I do not know who to trust. I just pray that someone will help me."Ama Sumani who left the shores of Ghana for Britain on a student visa five years ago, appealed in vain against her deportation. She first went to UK as a visitor in 2003 and was later granted a student visa.However, her poor English prevented her from studying and she subsequently took up paid work, which contravened her visa. In 2005, she returned to Ghana to attend a memorial service for her late husband, but on re-entering the UK her student visa was revoked and she was given temporary admission. She later became ill in 2006.
Ama's case prompted widespread controversy in the UK, with the Lancet medical journal calling the decision to send her home "atrocious barbarism".First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the Home Office should re-examine the case and "draw a different conclusion."
He compared Ms Sumani's case to that of Sierra Leonean footballer Al Bangura, who was allowed to stay in the UK after a Home Office appeal against deportation.
Wales Euro MP Glenys Kinnock called for an explanation as to why Ms Sumani did not qualify under the Border and Immigration Agency's "exceptional circumstances" provision.But the head of the Border and Immigration Agency, Lin Homer, told the home affairs select committee that hers did not stand out from other difficult cases.Former Home Office minister Alun Michael, the MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, the constituency where Ms Sumani lived, said her case had been thoroughly examined.He said that the debate was more about the quality of treatment available in her home country.Source: Daily Guide
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