Visa row patient starts dialysis

Ama Sumani needs dialysis to prolong her life

A dying Ghanaian woman who was controversially removed from a UK hospital and flown home has begun having vital treatment in her homeland.

Ama Sumani, 39, was removed a week ago by UK immigration officials because her visa had expired.

Mrs Sumani's kidney dialysis she was having in Cardiff prolonged her life, and her supporters feared she would not be able to pay the costs in Ghana.

But three months' treatment has been paid by a Dutch woman living in Wales.

Ms Sumani's supporters in Wales are now confident that the mother-of-two will be able to find additional funding for more dialysis after that has been completed at the capital Accra's Korle-Bu hospital.

Janet Symmons, a Cardiff-based supporter, said she hoped the therapy, needed to keep her friend alive, will begin soon.

Malignant myeloma

She said she was confident of securing additional funding for the dialysis which costs about $6000 (£3,060) for three months.

Last Wednesday Mrs Sumani was taken from Cardiff's University Hospital where she had been cared for for a year after being diagnosed with malignant myeloma which damaged her kidneys.

Immigration officials took her to Heathrow and then flew back with her to the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Efforts to find a way for Mrs Sumani to receive dialysis there have continued for the last week.

She first came to the UK five years ago to become a student but began working as a cleaner, contravening her visa regulations.

Ama Sumani was driven away from hospital in Cardiff

Her case prompted widespread controversy in the UK with the Lancet medical journal calling the decision to send her home "atrocious barbarism".

First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the Home Office should re-examine the case and "draw a different conclusion".

He compared Mrs Sumani's case to that of Sierra Leone footballer Al Bangura who has been allowed to stay in the UK after a Home Office appeal against deportation

Wales Euro MP Glenys Kinnock called for an explanation as to why Ms Sumani did not qualify under the Border and Immigration Agency's "exceptional circumstances" provision.

But the head of the Border and Immigration Agency, Lin Homer, told the home affairs select committee that hers did not stand out from other difficult cases.

Former Home Office minister Alun Michael, the MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, the constituency where Ms Sumani lived, said her case had been thoroughly examined.

He said that the debate was more about the quality of treatment available in her home country.