A 28-YEAR-old Sri Lankan farmhand died after he was left untreated for two days after sustaining severe head injuries from a fall.
Immigrant support group KISA is holding his employer and a private Nicosia clinic responsible.
State pathologist Nicholas Charalambous said yesterday he had launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the man’s death.
“There are still a lot of unanswered questions that need to be addressed,” he said.
On January 13 Sima Muththiah, a Tamil asylum seeker, was injured at a horse farm where he had been employed as a stablehand.
“He was also a horse trainer so it is quite likely he was riding and took a fall,” said Doros Polycarpou of KISA.
A day later, the employer contacted Muththiah’s brother at whose instigation the 28-year-old was taken to a private Nicosia clinic. During the 24-hours he was admitted, no treatment was offered to him.
“He was just left there. They did nothing. They didn’t have the necessary equipment to diagnose him but they didn’t even send him somewhere else where they could. They just left a man lying there with head injuries. He might as well have been left at the farm or in the field or the clinic, it was the same thing,” the state pathologist said.
On Thursday, Muththiah’s brother instructed the clinic to send the 28-year-old to Nicosia general hospital. On Friday, hospital doctors notified the employer that his condition was critical, at which point the employer notified police about the accident, Polycarpou said.
Charalambous was only called in to examine the 28-year-old that Friday, four days after the Sri Lankan had fallen.
“He was already in a coma when I saw him,” he said. Four days later he died.
Wednesday’s autopsy confirmed his death had been caused by an internal blood clot caused by the fall.
“He was brain dead. A lot of pressure had built up in his brain because of the delay [in treating him]. He should have gone immediately to hospital, had a CAT scan and been admitted for surgery to stop the bleeding and pressure on the brain. [Instead,] he was left like that for two days and went into a coma. Perhaps he could have lived,” said Charalambous, though the pathologist admitted this was by no means certain.
Nevertheless the fact remained that “he wasn’t given the chance to live”, he added.
The state pathologist said this was not an open and shut case. The employer has claimed that Muththiah had not been an employee of his and that he’d only been housing the Sri Lankan man. He has also alleged that the 28-year-old felt dizzy while he was standing and collapsed.
But Charalambous said the severity of the 28-year-old’s injuries made it highly possible he had been riding a horse at the time. This scenario ties in with KISA’s suspicions that the farm owner had been using Muththiah as a horse trainer.
The problem is that no one is talking and there is no evidence to support this theory.
“I examined the scene and didn’t find any evidence, but he could have been anywhere [on the farm] at the time,” said Charalambous.
He said the employer and other employees had remained tight-lipped over the incident.
Pera Chorio police confirmed the employer was under investigation for employing an illegal worker as well as negligence.
“We will examine all aspects of the case and whatever evidence arises,” the duty officer said.
KISA called for an independent investigation into the worker’s death and the private and public health services’ possible accountability in his treatment. It also called on the Labour Inspection Department to examine the accident, including any negligence on the employer’s behalf.
The Health Minister was unavailable for comment.
SIMA Muththiah arrived in Cyprus in June 2006 on temporary visa to work as horse carer. KISA said his employer made him work as a horse rider for €427 a month, 13 hours a day. In December 2006, he filed a complaint that his employer had not only failed to treat him for a work accident but had also forced him to continue working. His employer then put the Muththiah’s name on the stop list, rendering him an “illegal” in Cyprus.
“Due to the state’s weakness in protecting him from his employer, the 28-year-old remained in Cyprus without any status and in December 2007 he applied for asylum,” KISA said. As a Tamil, he was allowed to remain in Cyprus. A UN recommendation and European Court decision prevent Tamils from being deported.
Despite this, for some reason his file at the Asylum Service has been closed.
“We don’t know why. His asylum application has been examined which concerns us,” said Polycarpou.
Polycarpou said the incident proved yet again the extent of the wretchedness to which immigrants and refugees were condemned because of Cyprus’ unfair and inadequate immigration model.
