A 16-YEAR-OLD boy was last night clinging to life after he was struck by electricity while picking mangoes just yards away from his home at Dunlow Lane, Bay Street, St Michael.
Jonathan Narine, a fourth former of Parkinson Secondary School, lay motionless in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) while family members including his parents stood by his bedside in prayer, wishing he would regain consciousness.
The incident occurred just around 3 p.m. when Narine and a group of neighbourhood friends were playing in the district.
One youngster, who declined give his name, spoke of seeing Narine in the mango tree but didn’t realise he was in difficulty.“
Jonathan was in the tree and the fellows kept shouting for him but he just wouldn’t answer,” he recalled.
Apparently, while the teenager was making his way down the tree, the hook which was attached to a metal rod he was using struck the power line.
What, however, alerted Narine’s friends that something had gone wrong was when smoke began to fill the air around the tree.“
They missed his voice and one of the fellows told another named Michael ‘wait, you lighting up bees?’,” he added.
It was at this point, that on closer examination it was realised that Narine’s feet were on fire and he wasn’t responding.
Friends, in desperation, tried to get close to him but said the tree had became extremely hot.
“We started to get rocks and pelt at the metal piece which dropped and Jonathan fell down on his back,” was how another youngster described the ordeal, noting they were fanning their friend to see if it could revive him.
Parents Anne-Marie Pierre and Rupert Narine were both in shock, but grandmother Agatha Pierre last night said she was praying for his recovery.
“He (Jonathan) isn’t talking, his eyes are shut. He’s criticial and just lying down there,” she tearfully told the DAILY NATION.
Last night, officials from the Barbados Light and Power visited family members. the Barbados Light & Power had been notified.
