Kind medical orderly reunites missing New Grant pensioner with family

Thanks to a kind medical orderly, a missing New Grant pensioner who forgot his full name and address has been found.

Valston Yearwood, 81, of La Gloria Settlement, went missing on Sunday.

Avian Flavinney-Dawson, a medical orderly at the San Fernando General Hospital, saw him wandering in the grounds around 6 am. She took him home in her car to his delighted relatives.

Flavinney-Dawson said she was set to start work at 7 am but arrived around 6 am. Minutes later, while on her way to get breakfast with other colleagues, she recognised and approached him.

But Yearwood only remembered his surname.

"I asked him where he was from, and he replied, Cedar Hill. Then I recognised something was not right, because he is from my area. I told him he was Mr Valston from New Grant. He said yes, that was him," Flavinney-Dawson told Newsday.

She called the police to let them know where he was, but it seemed Yearwood was about to go on the move again. Concerned he might go missing again, she took action.

"I am not letting my neighbour go missing! I told my supervisor that I knew this man and that no one may be able to find him if he left from here.

"Mr Valston was telling me he was living with his parents. He was speaking as though they were still alive, and he was living with them at Cedar Hill. He also said he has memory loss," Flavinney-Dawson said.

She also showed him his pictures, which have been circulating on Facebook since his disappearance.

When asked where he had been, he said he had been sleeping by a building.

Flavinney-Dawson said while on their way to New Grant, she kept in contact with the police.

When she reached Yearwood’s home, PCs Sujeet Ramcharan and Deboulet were there waiting. She commended them, saying they were very professional.

After reuniting the family, she went home, parked her car, and travelled back to work.

"I would have had to wait too long to get a park," she said.

Police also thanked the medical orderly for her kindness, saying people like her make the country a better one.