Injured bus victim cries out for help

FROM his hospital bed at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC), one of the victims of Tuesday’s deadly highway crash, Khemraj Ramgohan is crying out for help.

His wife Chanrowtee Jairam said he was not getting the kind of treatment he expected. In an interview with the Newsday on Friday, Jairam said they were in the dark about the injuries he suffered or the extent. Several attempts to speak to a doctor have been unsuccessful.

“The nurses cannot give out information. One of them told me to come 8 o’clock on Friday morning to talk to the doctor. I reach there at quarter to seven (6.45 am) from my home in Rousillac Village, Grant’s Trace in the deep south, and waited until after 9 am and still no doctors.”

“My husband told me the doctors not doing anything for him. He get cut on his forehead and straight across his face from the right side of the lip. His chest in bandage and we don’t know why. They can’t find an eye specialist yet. His eyes damaged real bad. The left eye swollen shut. The right one open a little, but his vision is blurred. His whole right side is numb. ”

Jairam said her husband is threatening to discharge himself because of his bad experience. “He is a person you cannot find his veins easily to get blood so, they “chook” (insert a needle to draw blood) him all over. They “chook” him on the side of his eye, they “chook” him on his foot, the foot real swell and he has a lot of pain.” Ramgohan is barely able to open his mouth because of the injures and requires someone to feed him. Jairam said during the Thursday visit she gave him orange juice and water as the drips (IV) from which he was being fed were removed. “I was in the ward when the meals passed, and they passed his bed straight. He needs to be fed and they not taking time to do that.”

Davlin Thomas, CEO of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) could not be reached yesterday, but in a release after the accident, he commended his team for doing a good job.

Ramgohan, 62, was among 48 passengers injured, when a dump truck blew a tyre, struck a Blue Waters delivery truck, which then crossed the median and ran into the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) buin which he was travelling.

He has little memory of the crash in which Tara Baboolal of Penal and Judy Marcia Reid, of Diego Martin, died. He reached out to his wife as the vehicles collided but was knocked into unconsciousness before he could speak to her.

“My phone rang around 10 am and when I answered he did not respond. All I could hear was noise and a lady bawling “Oh God, Oh God.” I knew something was wrong.”

Her worse fears were confirmed about an hour later when a police officer, called her.

Ramgohan was on his way to work at the Ministry of Legal Affairs, He usually parked his car in San Fernando and travelled with the Deluxe Coach. On Tuesday, he and one of his son’s Naresh were scheduled to travel on the bus, but plans changed at the last minute and he made the trip alone.

“Thank God or else my son would have been in the accident too,” Jairam said.