Antiguans at Cave Hill appeal for help after tragic accident (Graphic Images)

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Local students attending the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill campus are appealing to the public assist in meeting the medical expenses of one of their own who was seriously injured in a traffic accident.
OBSERVER media has learnt that the Antiguan, student Wendy Wallace, is currently hospitalised in Roseau, Dominica where she is being treated for major injuries to her legs and other parts of her body.
The prognosis is that she may not be able to walk for months.
According to her sister, Kempburn Wallace, Wendy a 21-year-old second year law student at UWI, was a backseat passenger during a bad smash-up last week Saturday while she was travelling to Bense.
The President of Antigua & Barbuda Students Association (ABSA) at Cave Hill, Barbados, Bianca Merchant, said that the small group of tight-knit students is pleading for the Antiguan and Barbudan public to make donations towards Wendy’s medical care.
 “We’re in the real world and money talks. She needs the money to get her surgeries done or she may not be able to walk … and I’d like to urge anyone who knows Wendy to share that link and to donate themselves – everyone in Antigua – and get others to donate,” she said in an interview with OBSERVER media.
On January 12, a campaign called ‘Helping Wendy to Walk Again’ was started by one of Wendy’s friends on the crowdfunding website generosity.com and has so far garnered US $1,410 of US $20,000 goal. Donors can contribute to Wendy’s medical care by going to the link https://igg.me/at/pLaeJoz3d-s
According to Kempburn, her sister cannot walk and suffered a broken left femur (thigh bone) which is currently “under traction pending surgery” in addition to “major lacerations to her right knee” and severe damage to her right knee cap.

Wendy, who enrolled at UWI after graduating from the Antigua State College (ASC) in 2015, also suffered a broken thumb, “lacerations and minor fractures to the face” and bruises to other parts of the body.
Kempburn reported the first hospital bill for treating her sister’s left leg amounted to just over EC $9,100 and doctors advised her to raise a minimum of EC $30,000.
OBSERVER media reached out to several of the law student’s friends who all relayed despair over the phone from Barbados. Her friend Yanna Hughes, who served on the 2015 – 2016 ABSA executive with Wendy said, “It’s really heart breaking when a student cannot continue [her studies].
 “I was in a bad car accident in Barbados in my final year of undergraduate study and I was so afraid that I couldn’t go back to study after all that hard work. She can’t go back. She went through all those years at UWI and has to put off an entire year because of this.”
She added somberly, “It’s a really bad feeling not knowing when you can walk again.”
A fellow law student, Andrena Athill said, “She and I would have been graduating together… and we would have done our walk around October 2018. We were rejoicing that by next year we would have been finished and now to hear that she wouldn’t even be able to continue … is just heartbreaking.”
 “We’re all trying to come together to see what we can do to help her. But perhaps by gathering support from [home] we’ll be able to help her. She’s such an intelligent young lady … and she very kindhearted.”
Kempburn reported that after surgeries, one of which is expected to take place next Wednesday, her sister will need “post-operative care in addition to physiotherapy”.
She said, “She’s awake but she’s in so much pain. I speak to her and she laughs but she can’t laugh for long because her insides begin to hurt.”
Apart from being the Constitutional Chairperson on ABSA’s 2015 – 2016 executive, Wendy is presently the retuning officer on the current executive. Merchant said that the accident victim “has been in a sense been my pillar of strength for the year”.
The ABSA’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Ricardo Nedd told OBSERVER media, “Wendy is someone who is loved among us – the sort of person you can always count on to put a smile on your face – everybody was just devastated.”
Meanwhile Merchant assured that the ABSA, despite its finical constraints, was determined to start fund-raising as soon as possible once classes recommence on Monday. She said she was hopeful of partnering with the Dominica Students Association as Wendy was also a native of that island.

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