This young lady, now 19, was first discovered with serious medical complications, resulting from serious burns. This was about 11 years ago, at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital children’s ward, where she was a patient.

 She was eight years old then and, according to Mr Bijou Peters, who had discovered the young angel, Sera had sustained severe 3rd degree burns on her face, chest, abdomen, arms and thighs.  "She was suffering a great deal and, under normal circumstances, the patient should not have survived because patients admitted with severe burns involving more than two thirds (2/3) of the body do not often survive."

Dr Ayo Palmer, the Paediatrician in charge of the children’s ward at that time was said to have requested Mr Peters to visit the burns section of the ward to discover the large number of children’s admitted with severe burns. There were appallingly several cases of patients with various forms of burns; some mild and others serious. Among these was little Sera Jarju who was very severely burnt, and had been in the hospital for a whole year, with her grandmother, Binta, and they were about to be discharged home to Lamin.  The surgeon in change of her had decided that the hospital was unable to do anymore for her.

Sera was in an awful plight. During the healing process of her burns, contracture of her muscles had developed (blue muscles of her arms began to contract inward, towards her chest, a common feature of 3rd degree burns).

A splint in the shape of a cross to keep her arms outstretched would have prevented the contractures. But unfortunately this was not used, and very soon the contracture persisted and Sera’s arms became fused across her chest.  This rendered the poor child incapacitated; she could not feed, wash herself or do anything by herself; and she was in a terrible dilemma.

 "This was very unfortunate, as when I first met Sera she was up and about and actually playing with the other children in the ward who were recovering," said Mr Peters, "I was saddened and disturbed when I discovered that she was about to be discharged home because the surgeon felt that nothing more could be done for her, and that her grandmother was tired, having been with her in hospital for a whole year."  

An unhappy situation it was. What was to become of her in Lamin Village, now that she could not do anything for herself? Who would take on the responsibility of caring for her, feeding her, and so on?  In no time she would not be properly fed, she would lose weight, and her condition would certainly begin to deteriorate.  The nurses at the hospital then deserve unreserved commendation for treating her severe burns until they got healed. God also had his healing hands on Sera and was not going to allow her to die.

On Mr Peters’ return home, he was inspired to write an article about the child’s predicament and put a picture of her on the papers. (That is the picture of her on this page). The result of that article was dramatic. The public was apparently struck by the poor child’s misfortune, so people began to donate to wards her welfare.

This was the beginning of an impressive fund raising spree for Sera - institutions, civil service departments, schools, private individuals - and even the army organised a football match and donated the proceeds realized to Sera Jarju’s fund.

That was a fantastic display of humanitarianism, as nothing of that nature had ever happened before.  In a short time an amount of D92, 749.20 was collected for the child.  It could be recalled that all donations were sent to the senior accountant at the RVTH, MB Awa John, who had a very busy time writing to acknowledge receipt of every donation, thanking donors, in spite of her busy schedule of work at the hospital.

A committee was subsequently formed, including some of the hospital authorities. And this committee decided to search abroad for a hospital and a re-constructive plastic surgeon that would be willing to treat Sera without charges.

The committee dispatched several correspondences to hospitals in the UK and elsewhere, hoping to find a hospital willing to help this unfortunate child. "We were so lucky to have received positive responses from various hospitals ready to help her. We succeeded in choosing the best hospital that would suit our purpose regarding proximity to The Gambia as well as a plastic surgeon with experience in re-constructive plastic surgery.  All that entailed a great deal of work and correspondences to and fro.

Finally, Mr Dimonkay, an experienced plastic surgeon in re-constructive surgery, took on the challenge and offered his services free of charge, provided we could get Sera to the UK, to her hospital in Leeds, and accompanied by a trained nurse to assist with the nursing care of the sschild while in hospital.

Sera went to the UK on two successive occasions, and underwent two major operations; the first one was to free her fused arms, while the 2nd was for the re-constructive plastic surgery, both of which, thankfully, were successful.  It was a great achievement for Mr Kay and his team.  He reportedly stated that he had never seen contractures as extensive and severe as Sera's. "We were happy that Sera survived the two major surgery operations."

After so many sufferings, recounts Mr Peters, Sera made a good and speedy recovery when she returned home.  There after she was much better, she began to agitate to go to school. She received the needed encouragement and was accepted at a primary school in her home village of Lamin.  She enjoyed being at school and soon made a lot of friends.  Sera, according to him, was a very courageous child, undaunted by her disability. And she was not the least embarrassed by her deformity.

 "She plodded on slowly but surely through primary school, until she reached grade 9."  At that stage, they succeeded in getting her sponsors from the UK. Sera did not want to go to a skill centre.

Rather, she preferred to continue her education up to grade 12. She proved adamant about that, and was able to find herself a school all the way in Brikama, where she managed to stay with a family member.  She has now completed grade 12. "We say well done and bravo to this girl of 19 years, for her determination, courage and resourcefulness, to have achieved so much in spite of many difficulties and much suffering.  A good member of Gambians will remember all that she endured at the age of 8."

In conclusion Sera’s right hand, fortunately, was not terribly burnt, but her left hand was, and she actually lost three digits, for which she still requires surgery.  Mr Kay is said to be willing to help to treat her, but not free of charge this time round, because he is no longer at the Leeds Hospital where he was in charge of.

An appeal is hereby sent to any philanthropist who may be willing to help Sera Jarju even further.  Her recovery was indeed a real miracle!

Courtesy of Mr Bijou Peters