Kayley Asher, who suffered brain injuries when she was attacked by child killer Allitt as a baby, says the horror still plays on her mind.
A tormented survivor of Angel of Death Beverley Allitt has issued a direct plea to David Cameron over her axed benefits.
Kayley Asher, who suffered brain injuries when she was attacked by child killer Allitt as a baby, has spoken for the first time of how the horror still preys on her mind.
And she told how she must now pay for expensive drugs to stem the flashbacks – while Allitt has all her medical needs met free of charge.
In her first ever interview, Kayley, now 26, tells how she is haunted by the face of twisted nurse Allitt, who attacked 13 children on a hospital ward in 1991, killing four.
Kayley was 13 months old when she was left with brain damage after Allitt injected an oxygen bubble into her bloodstream.
She said: “I can still see her face.
“I just want her to stay inside for ever, it’s a nightmare. Allitt is very evil, she’s a bad person.
"The good comes down from heaven, but the badness can come from a person. I don’t want her to hurt me or anybody else again.”
And in a plea to David Cameron , she begged: “Prime Minister, please give me my benefits back.”
In a cruel twist, the only reason Kayley’s benefits were axed at all was because she won compensation for her ordeal at Allitt’s hand.
As a child, she was paid £11,500 for the injuries she suffered, which grew to just over £16,000 with interest by her 18th birthday.
That little nestegg meant she was not technically eligible for the employment support allowance she was getting because her brain damage prevents her from working.
So devastated Kayley was told to hand back £23,500 already paid out to her in benefits.
Social security officials claim that Kayley failed to declare the
compensation.
They say she should not have received the means-tested payments – and it must all be paid back.
And the fact she is no longer on benefits means she loses the right to free prescriptions.
The decision has enraged Kayley’s family, who have dedicated their lives to caring for her.
Every day she must take psychiatric medication to calm delusions that Allitt will attack her again – costing up to £40 a month.
Allitt murdered four children at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincs, ranging in age from two-month-old Becky Phillips to Tim Hardwick, 11.
She attempted to murder three others.
She was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to a further six – including Kayley.
Now 47, she is serving 13 life sentences at Rampton Secure Hospital, Notts, with a minimum tariff of 30 years.
Kayley’s adoptive dad Alan said: “Allitt can have savings at Rampton – and she can have all her medicines paid for by the NHS. How can that possibly be fair?”
Each night Alan and wife Sharon have to empty every drawer and wardrobe in Kayley’s bedroom to reassure her that Allitt is not lying in wait.
Alan said: “We can be up until 2am or 3am checking the room. Kayley will look behind ever door and check under the bed, even 25 years on.
"She went through a phase where she just shouted in fear. We always try to reassure her.
“There’s no doubt that what happened with Allitt has made her suffer more with her conditions.”
Kayley suffers from a rare birth defect called Kabuki Syndrome, which can affect both a child’s physical and mental development.
It is named after a style of Japanese theatre because it affects facial features such as eyelids, mouth and skin pattern, sometimes giving the appearance of oriental stage make up.
Alan added: “It’s terribly unfair that Kayley was told last year by the Department for Work and Pensions that she must pay back £23,500 in benefits.
"The compensation was there to secure her future. What happens when we are dead?
“Kayley can never have a job and we’re never far from her, caring for her. Kabuki Syndrome was only discovered in the late 1980s, so no one yet knows how it will develop in adults.
"Who knows what she will need, or how she will be provided for? She also lost eligibility for any free prescriptions and lost all her dental treatment.
"Kayley takes medicines for her digestion and needs psychiatric medicines to calm her delusions of Allitt.”
Kayley, who lives with her family in Grantham, only found out she was a victim of Allitt when a teacher let it slip at school.
She rushed home from her lesson and asked her parents: “Is it true a nurse tried to kill me?”
Kayley had been in hospital with a chest infection when she was targeted by Allitt. She stopped breathing twice and suffered two heart attacks.
She has never before spoken about Allitt’s crimes – even in the monthly meetings she still has with a psychiatrist.
And she began sobbing as she contemplated the possibility of Allitt being released.
Kayley said: “She might come out one day. She might remember me.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten