A grieving mother is seeking answers after her 23-year-old son succumbed to injuries following a tragic incident that occurred while he was cleaning a well at the HOPE Housing Project at Lancaster, St James.
Bernice “Pat” Alleyne said her son Shamir and another man were cleaning the well when suddenly water started gushing into it from a main, falling on top of them. By the time workers used a “willis” to pull them out, Shamir, who was brought out last, was in a semi-conscious state.
Alleyne said after a week in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, her son died on Saturday as a result of pulmonary oedema – water in the lungs.
Pointing out that he was able to briefly tell her what happened while she also spoke to the other young man who was in the well with him, the mother said she was still trying to determine who turned on the main.
She explained that on February 7, her daughter Shamika telephoned her
around 2 p.m. to tell her that Shamir was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Alleyne said she rushed there and saw him lying in the Accident & Emergency Department.
“He said to me, ‘Mummy, I almost drown. You almost lost me’,” she sadly recalled. She added that she overheard him tell the doctor that they were cleaning the well and then it started to fill up with water.
Alleyne said she held out hope that he would pull through even after he was taken to ICU because his oxygen level was low. He was also placed on a ventilator. “He could not talk but he wrote a note and told me, ‘Thank everyone for praying for me. Tell everyone that I love them’. I told him, ‘We will continue praying for you and you also pray for yourself’.” Alleyne said she and her daughter took turns in visiting Shamir every day.
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