‘Everyone did their best to save him’

The doctors and nurses, the police, and even the hotel owner at Grande Riviere, all tried their best to help and revive National Drama Association president Edwin Erminy Bayley, and Raymer Diaz refuses to have people think negatively about this country because of his husband’s death.

Erminy Bayley drowned at Grande Riviere beach, Toco on December 31.

Diaz said while his partner was swimming he got into some trouble and his head started to dip under the water. He swam to Erminy Bayley who was still alive at that time. Others came to help and they all got him to the shore.

Diaz said they lay Erminy Bayley on the sand and the owner of the hotel at which they were staying as well as others tried to revive him as he was by then unconscious. They shouted out to onlookers to call a doctor and someone contacted the health centre.

He said they tried to revive him for 15 to 20 minutes before a doctor came. “When the doctor reached I saw him but he was walking so slowly. I shouted to him to please hurry up and ran to him. When I reached him he told me he was trying to do his best but he had a problem with his foot.”

The doctor took Erminy Bayley’s pulse and performed CPR on him until the ambulance arrived and he was taken to the health centre.

“The doctors and the nurses tried their best. They tried to revive him for like 20 minutes doing whatever they could do until one doctor said too much time passed and they declared him dead at 5.25 (pm).”

He said while everything was happening it seemed like a long time before the doctor arrived however, he stressed that the medical personnel tried their best and was a big support to him when he was devastated over Erminy Bayley’s death. People of Spanish descent usually carry the surnames of both parents.

According to Diaz, the autopsy report stated that the cause of death was asphyxiation and drowning but Erminy Bayley also had a heart attack. He said Erminy Bayley suffered from high blood pressure and heart problems and believed he had a heart attack in the water, which led to the drowning.

After the incident, Diaz said he did not read any of the news reports about his partner’s death because he did not want to know what people had to say. However, his family members abroad saw a video of his partner’s body posted on the internet and told him about it. “I don’t know how one person could be so morbid as to post something like that.”

He said when he heard someone was interviewed by the local media and said the doctor did not arrive until hours later, he was not only upset but angry at the lie. He said his friends and family abroad started speaking badly about TT, blaming the doctors and the country’s health system for Erminy Bayley’s death. He said he understood that they were in pain and wanted someone or something to blame but he could not leave them with the wrong idea about TT and clarified the situation to them.

“I just wanted to clarify this because I think it was a very nasty situation. We came from Venezuela but he fell in love with it. And now that someone tried to dirty the image of the country, using his name when he loved it so much, it was so sad for me. I don’t understand how someone could do that to have five minutes of fame.”