The intervention of a police officer yesterday resulted in battered robbery victim Terry Viville finally getting treatment at the Mount St. John’s Medical Centre (MSJMC).
The 19-year-old, who had been trying to get medical attention at MSJMC since Saturday, has been prescribed medication for the pain and swelling at the back of his head and blurred vision in one eye which plagued him since he was struck in the head with a baseball bat in the course of being robbed on the way home.
The officer who assisted, identified as Senior Sergeant Cuffy from the Criminal Investigations Department, reportedly took Viville to the hospital early yesterday morning, But even then, the young man said, one of the hospital staff still gave them a bit of a hard time, saying Viville needed to register and wait like everyone else.
The Belmont youth had been going back and forth to MSJMC for treatment on Saturday and Monday, and each time he was made to wait several hours without being treated or in any way attended to.
On Saturday, in equal measure of pain and frustration, he left after waiting from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. – an experience repeated two days later on Monday when he again gave up after waiting from 11 a.m. until after 5 p.m.
Last Friday, while walking along Briggins main road heading home, he was attacked by three masked men who robbed him of his passport, knapsack and gold chain.
But before escaping in the car they had used to stalk Viville, one of the men knocked him out with a baseball bat.
The stunned man recovered from the blow, got up and ran home in shock. After taking some pain medication the next morning, he reported the incident to the police who gave him a medical form and advised him to go to the hospital.
Yesterday, a computerised tomography or CT scan showed he did not sustain any serious or life-threatening injury from the blow.
He was given medication for the pain, swelling and blurred vision, and advised that all these symptoms should subside with the treatment. But if they persist, Viville was told, he should return to the hospital for a follow up.