One week after he was hit by a police ambulance while attempting to cross the Mon Repos public road, 15-year-old Denis Ewing Chow succumbed to his injuries.
The lad, who lived at Lot 53 Mon Repos, North, East Coast Demerara and who attended the BV Secondary School died at around 7.30 pm on Thursday. He was a patient in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown hospital and had been unconscious after having suffered severe head injuries.
At his home yesterday, several villagers and relatives congregated to offer their support to the grieving family as preparations were being made for a wake. The teen’s mother, Fareeza Warsally, trying to hold back her tears, told Stabroek News that at the time of the accident Denis was coming home for lunch. The mother said every day she would leave work to go home and prepare lunch for her children. She said she was at home when Denis’s younger brother called and told her about the accident which occurred opposite the Melsha Furniture Store. However, Warsally said by the time she arrived on the scene Denis had already been taken to the hospital.
Warsally said persons at the scene told her that her son had been crossing the road when an ambulance overtook a car and slammed into him. She said too that she had been told that Denis had almost reached the other side of the road when he was hit. She said Denis was placed into the ambulance to be transported to the hospital but the ambulance started smoking so he was then put into a car.
With tears welling in her eyes, Warsally said her son had had to undergo emergency brain surgery and that the doctor had told her that he was in critical condition as he had suffered a fractured skull. She also said that since the accident the driver of the ambulance never visited her son in hospital. “That driver never came to the hospital to see my son. I had to spend plenty money to do x-ray, CT scan and to buy medication for the swelling in his head. How could you just hit down somebody and turn your back?” she questioned angrily. Warsally said that on the day of the accident she went to the BV Police Station where the driver was being detained and attempted to speak with him. However, she said the man started to quarrel and told her that since she wasn’t on the scene at the time of the accident that she should shut her mouth. Warsally said he spoke loudly while he abused her at the lock-ups. The woman said after her son died she went to back to the station to inform the ranks who in turn told her that they were looking for the driver.
Warsally described her son as a kind, friendly, jolly and cooperative child. She said that he did well at school and went to the masjid every day to meditate. Denis leaves to mourn his mother, father, Denis senior, and four siblings.
The boy’s death adds to the alarming rise in traffic accidents in recent weeks.
(Zoisa Fraser)
