Tourist falls in bat cave: ‘Like a horror story’

This was her third visit to TT, and German visitor Ulrike Frenking was hoping to make the best of her time here.

At 65, Frenking is what her son Tobias described as a very “outdoorsy” person who loves the tropics and the rainforests, people and animals, hiking and going to the beach, all to be had here in TT.

On Monday night, Frenking set out with a small group, including her husband Heribert and Tobias, to explore the caves on Mt Tamana, in East Trinidad, which are inhabited by millions of bats. It did not go according to plan. Frenking fell 25 feet into a hole inside the cave.

Tobias said, “I was a little way off talking to someone when all of a sudden, she went down, just like that. I was terrified. It was like a horror movie. It was dark and raining with thousands of bats flying around. I took a torchlight and instructed a guide to tie a rope to a tree and I descended into the hole. When I found my mother she was in extreme pain and in shock.

“Someone went for help and several villagers came. One of them came down into the hole with me. Once we looked at my mother’s condition we realised we could not get her out because her knee was badly damaged and we couldn’t move her.”

But, that did not stop the villagers whom Tobias described as courageous and well organised.

“They cut down a tree and placed it over the hole. Inside the hole we found an ladder one of the men said that was left behind by scientists years ago when they were doing research. One of the men built a crane-like construction and tied the rope in such a way that balanced the ladder when we placed her on it. We were able to lift her out that way.” It was about three hours before Frenking was lifted out of the hole, but their rescue efforts were not done yet.

The group had to carry Frenking down a steep hill, which Tobias said was wet and very slippery. He said they had to be very careful so as not to jerk his mother around and cause her more pain. This took about 25 minutes.

While he praised the villagers for their swift response, Tobias said the Fire Services did not arrive until after they got down the hill.

“We were able to get down the hill and had already placed my mother in the back of a pick-up truck when they got there. She was taken to Mt Hope (Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex), where she was treated very professionally. As soon as we got there the doctor in charge took several scans of her leg. It was broken and had scattered fractures.

“We got there around 3 am on Tuesday. Around 8 am we transferred my mother to Medical Associates (private hospital in St Joseph) because at Mt Hope they told us they will not be able to do her surgery until next week.

“The doctor there did the surgery and inserted three steel pins in her leg to hold the bones together. We were worried that she may have had internal injuries, because there wasa lot of bruising about her body. We believe she may have hit a ledge on the way down and that might have absorbed some of the impact of the fall, because it was a long way down.”

Tobias said even though his mother was still in pain, she wanted to ensure that her good Samaritans were recognised. She thanked villagers Jonathan Fongyew, Jerome Villafana, Charles Villafana, Steven Villafana, Wendell Olivia and Rennie Ramsawak.

Tobias said it was nothing short of miraculous that his mother has already started physiotherapy. Asked when she would be discharged from hospital, he said it was up to the operating doctor.

“My parents still have two weeks left here, so we will have to try and find activities she can still do while she is on crutches. She will want that.”