GoFundMe account set up to help Buccoo’s Daveon Webster walk again

DAVEON Webster wants to walk again.

The 22-year-old Buccoo man was left paralysed from his waist down when he hit his head while diving into the sea close to his home five years ago. He was then 16 years old and a student of the Scarborough Secondary School.

Speaking with Newsday on Thursday last week, Webster recalled what happened on April 15, 2017.

“I dove off the jetty right here in Buccoo and I ended up hitting the bottom – the sand.

“I was liming with my friends – it was the Saturday before Easter and there was this party. I was going to get the boat to carry some people on a reef tour. I ran first then dove off the jetty.”

Webster said he remembers hitting his head first.

“When I landed, immediately my whole body shutdown. So my legs pulled together and so did my arms. My entire body was laying at the attention position. I couldn’t move any part.

“I remember saying ‘Lord Father, just bring me back, I don’t want to die.’

“I kept on praying, and all this time I was holding my breath because this was happening under the water.”

Doctors later explained to him that a bone slipped out of his vertebrae.

“It squeezed my spinal cord, so that affected the movement from my waist down.”

He now uses a wheelchair to move around.

Webster said his dreams of joining the coast guard came crashing down in that one moment.

“I didn’t get to finish high school or even graduate – my education was placed on a pause. I am definitely interested in continuing my education soon.”

He said he tries to have a positive outlook on life.

“There are aches and pains a lot, but I don’t study it. I pay no mind to those pains. I try to be strong most times.”

His mother Nichole George told Newsday she wasn’t at home when the incident happened. She said Webster sought her permission prior to her leaving home.

George said she received a frightening phone call while on the road. It was her mother telling her to return home right away.

“She (my mother) said Daveon was on the jetty unresponsive. When I got there, the more I tried to walk faster, it was the slower I was going. There were a lot of persons at the jetty surrounding him. So, from the distance, I shouted his name and he responded. At that moment I thanked God.”

Webster was airlifted to the Port of Spain General Hospital that evening, accompanied by his father Dave.

George said life for her and her family has changed drastically.

“I remember seeing him warded and he was the life of the entire ward. This was something really hard, to see him in this position, yet he had so much faith and that is what is carrying me through. Had he been in low spirit, I would have been low as well but he has always had a very high spirit. Even in his sad moments, if he has to cry he will and say what he has to say, but he moves along quickly. He has hope that he would walk again.”

She said since the accident they have tried numerous specialists locally.

“But I think now is the time for us to see if we can get him out of the country to do additional recovery treatments.

“His recovery is sure but slow and, with an open mind, we’re going into this thinking he would walk again. He would not be able to walk strong one time, but the therapy would assist him greatly.”

George firmly believes that with the right specialists, surgery, and comprehensive treatment, Webster can return to the once active son she knows he can be.

“We have been in contact with NeuroFit 360 in Pembroke Pines, Florida. So when he goes up first, they would assess him because I sent all the documents already. They would do all their routine checks, and then he would be able to start physiotherapy because they said that is what he needs. If he needs anything additional, we will go from there. But starting the physiotherapy is very important.”

The cost of the procedures are US$155 per session, five days a week for approximately three months.

To help with this, the family has set up a GoFundMe account to receive donations from the public. As at Friday afternoon, they had raised US$1,139 of the US9,300 goal from 25 donors.

The family will also soon establish a collections account with a bank.

Anyone wishing to donate can do so via the fundraising page https://gofund.me/197b92a7, or by calling George at 753-8837.