(Trinidad Guardian) – Although Sally-Ann Cuffie risked her life to save her six-month-old granddaughter Christa, she may never be able to cradle the baby again.
Cuffie, 48, put her life on the line when she snatched up a scratch bomb which was thrown into her son’s car while the family was out for a drive on Divali night.
The bomb landed near the baby but before Cuffie could dispose of it, it exploded in her hand, severing both thumbs and severely damaging her other fingers.
What makes this injury especially threatening for Cuffie is that she suffers from diabetes which inhibits injuries from healing properly.
Now, doctors at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Centre (EWMSC) have to monitor Cuffie to ensure her wounds will heal. If her hands are not healing or become infected, both of them may have to be amputated.
From her bedside at the hospital on Friday, Cuffie recounted the horrifying ordeal. Her family had left their Talparo home shortly after 7 pm on Saturday, the Divali holiday, to drop Cuffie and one of her daughters to church.
“I was supposed to go to church with my daughter but my son Christon asked me to go with him, his wife and his children for a drive to my other daughter’s house.
“We said we would drive around a little and look at the deyas and lighting up for Divali,” Cuffie said.
But on reaching the end of Boy Cato Road, Las Lomas, around 8 pm, Cuffie said she suddenly saw a scratch bomb fall through the open car window next to little Christa.
“I can’t remember if it was on top of her or next to her in the car seat but I remember snatching it up and trying to throw it out the window,” she said.
When the bomb exploded, Cuffie said she thought her face had gotten the most damage.
“My ears were ringing and I thought ‘Oh God, this thing blow up my face,’ but when I raised my hands I realised the two were spraying blood.”
With her mangled hands outstretched, Cuffie told Christon to drive to the nearby Las Lomas Police Post.
“I told him to put on his hazard lights and drive to the police station, ‘cause I thought they would take me to the hospital,” she said.
However, she said officers there were less than receptive to her pleas.
“They were looking at me, asking a set of questions and when I told them I was in pain and wanted to go to the hospital, they said they had no vehicle and we should go to the health centre instead.”
Leaving the police station, Christon instead drove onto the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway and headed towards the EWMSC.
“We saw a police vehicle somewhere by Macoya and we flagged them down, they put me in their vehicle and brought me to the hospital,” she said.
She has been warded there since then.
“I cannot even drink water on my own. My son bought a cup with a bendy straw for when I can’t get up. I have to wear pampers because I can’t even go to the toilet alone. Either the nurses or my family member has to feed me,” she said.
Now Cuffie is facing a bleak future. She is employed as an estate constable and said without the use of her hands, she may not have a job to return to. She also crotchets and cooks to earn extra money.
“The doctors say I will have to wait and see if my hands heal properly and if they don’t, they will have to amputate… I don’t know how I will make out without my hands,” she said.
She is now appealing to those in authority to crack down on people who sell and use scratch bombs.
“I myself didn’t know the dangers of these things… imagine if it had blown up on my granddaughter, she might not have survived that.
“The authorities need to do something about this… If I have to be the example, I don’t mind but this cannot continue,” Cuffie said.
Anthony Eccles, 23, suffered a similar fate on Divali night. He was going to a relative’s home in St Augustine for dinner that night when a gang of boys threw a lighted scratch bomb into his cousin’s car.
Eccles, seated in the front passenger seat, tried to throw the bomb out the window when it exploded.
“I didn’t see who the guys were. I just remember the blood spraying from my hands. I opened the car door and kind of collapsed and then my cousin brought me to the hospital,” he said on Friday.
His left thumb and index finger were both mutilated and he has lost hearing in his left ear. He was discharged from hospital on Friday.