Prisoner out of coma, recovering

A prisoner, who was left fighting for his life after a recent prison break out, has come out of a coma and is recovering well.

This is according to Police Commissioner, Fuiavailiili Egon Keil, who said all prison officers and other prisoners injured during the breakout have been successfully treated at the Moto'otua Hospital.

They have since been discharged.

The severely injured prisoner was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (I.C.U.) on the night that 36 prisoners broke out of the recently inaugurated Tanumalala prison on 23 March. 

He was rushed to hospital shirtless and unconscious by an Emergency Services Authority (S.F.E.S.A.) ambulance shortly before 11pm where he was immediately rushed to the operating theatre.  

But Fuiavailiili said he has regained consciousness after slipping into a coma following the operation on his severe head injuries. 

The prisoner has been moved out of the I.C.U. and into another ward to continue his recovery while under monitoring. 

"We still have one in there, and from what I was told, he is recovering and he might have been in a coma, he was not responsive but now he is starting to come around," he said. "So he's conscious now and he's now in an acute ward and getting better."

A medical officer told the Samoa Observer that the inmate was admitted to hospital with bleeding in the brain.

The prisoner was one of five who became severely injured during the course of a riot which preceded the breakout; some were treated and released on site.

Another prisoner has also been admitted to hospital and remains under close watch following the result of a separate prison brawl that broke out earlier this week, Tuesday.

Five prisoners were treated at the hospital but one remains under observation at the hospital after being stabbed in the eye, Fuiavailiili said.

"I'm sure they did something, you know if the scissors goes into your eye, they'd have to do something," he said.

According to Fuiavaili’ili, the prisoners involved in the incident are from a different cell block to that involved in the outbreak.