Friends! We come to you with an urgent update today.
Alexandra shared with us that Ben had undergone an operation yesterday, a second one he's had since his incarceration. As some of you may recall, after his conviction Ben was first sent to the prison at Bristol, where he was recognised from the news and attacked. He sustained an injury to his jaw that required surgical treatment which he would not receive until five months later. His jaw had to be broken again in order to insert a metal plate and pin.
This new operation pertains to his general health and is not related to his jaw, nor was he physically attacked again. However he was deemed to be
so dangerous, possessing of such
raw,
primal and
savage individual
strength, that his hands had to be cuffed together while he was already cuffed to a prison officer, with a further
TWO officers on standby. Some of the basic preparations for the surgery, like cannulation, became unnecessarily more complicated for the hospital staff as a result. This was the case for the entire duration of his stay at the hospital. He was returned to HMP Frankland at 6.50pm and was able to call Alexandra to inform her of his condition.
We wanted to highlight his first surgery to make a point about how the prison system in the UK doesn't care about the health of inmates, and Alexandra is now worried that Ben may not be provided with painkillers, leaving him to bear with the pain. Since the operation is of a general health nature we can only speculate if the conditions of prison life were a contributing factor in Ben's declining health, though we believe that the answer is fairly self-evident.
We all wish Ben a speedy recovery, one that is hopefully as painless as is possible under the circumstances.
Originally we wanted to make a post after the holidays on how the donation campaign on
givesendgo has nearly reached it's halfway point at almost £2.5k and how grateful we are for everyone's contributions. Instead we sadly had to make this unfortunate announcement. We wish we had more resources or ways to fight for Ben's rights and improve his situation, there are institutions that are supposed to look into such matters. Sadly we know that the likelihood of anything being done this way is almost non-existent when pursued by third parties - being a Friend of a prisoner simply isn't enough. So we will focus our efforts on the campaign and ask you all once again for your help.
Repost this message.
Share the
campaign page.
Use
our stickers.
And, of course, please
donate what you can.
The sooner we can put together this money the better, and if we succeed Ben may leave prison by up to two years earlier, to be reunited with his Friends and Family.
Now, more than ever, the FBR motto becomes a call to action!
Φίλοις βοήθει – Help Your Friends!#BenUpdate