A Kenyan teen living in Minnesota, America has appealed for medical aid to undergo corrective plastic surgery after being shot wrongly in the face.
The teen, 17-year-old Sharon Moraa created a GoFundme account on Monday where she narrates her ordeal.
Moraa plaintively notes that she was hit by a bullet on May 28, 2020 during a protest on George Floyd’s death. A shot was fired by police who were standing on the other side as protestors condemned Floyd’s gruesome murder by a white cop, Derek Chauvin.
As the protest continued, another group broke into a nearby establishment.
She explains that soon after, police engaged the protestors by lobbing a teargas canister at them which called for retaliation and the shots were fired.
“The people were peacefully protesting before the police started throwing tear gas, resulting in them to throw it back to the police. After they started shooting, one almost hit me and my friend. All I remember was that I was standing by this tree, was about to turn around, and I got hit. I felt like I got sniped,” she states.
Moraa says that she was quickly rushed to Park Nicollet Hospital but did not get attended to because the hospital was booked to capacity as it is one of the COVID-19 centres.
At 4 am the following morning, she was transferred to a children’s hospital where she got booked and was stitched up but was advised to see a plastic surgeon to fix her lip and reduce the scar on her cheek caused by the bullet.
She is now appealing for financial aid to meet the cost of the plastic surgery saying she lives with her mother, Rose Oboga who is single and has footed for the bills incurred at the two hospitals where she was first treated.
In her appeal, she says some of the surgeons don’t accept insurance while some do and that those that her mum has spoken to are asking for a down payment.
“…my mom has been looking for a plastic surgeon. Some of them take insurance and some don’t but the thing is most of them she has talked to require a down payment, so it’s been hard try to juggle which ones to pick and pay off.”
The distressed Moraa implores that she has been battling mental health issues since the incident happened and is appealing to well-wishers to help her and her mum.
So far, she has managed to raise Ksh1.4 million against a projected target of Ksh6 million.
“If you guys can help out in anyway especially finding a surgeon it would help a lot,” she pleads.
