Jerome Ganga of Friendship, East Bank Demerara lived by the bottle and on Tuesday he reportedly died hours after taking his last drink.
He was found lying face down on the Public Road at Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara on Tuesday afternoon. Ganga appeared dead but according to relatives, no one checked to confirm this. They said he was left to lie on the road for about three hours after he was discovered until a hearse came and took him away.
Ganga, age 59 years who was in the habit of drinking and then passing out on the roadside was last seen alive around 2:30 pm when he spoke with his younger daughter, Christina Singh. The young woman recalled that he appeared to be okay and that he was also sober. She said he left shortly after visiting her at her mother’s home at Garden of Eden and was not seen again until he was spotted on the road.
She said her father drank heavily and consistently and that he often fell ill because of it. Singh related that he was in hospital a few times and that doctors had warned him about his drinking but he ignored the advice. She said no matter how much the family talked to him, Ganga kept on drinking.
“He loved high wine and he does drink on a empty stomach sometimes. We does talk to this man yet he go out and drink heavy without eating anything and that does damage he”, a relative said.
The family believes Ganga had a drink after he parted with his daughter and later passed out on the road. They are not certain how long he might have been there before they saw him.
The bottle and Ganga had been inseparable for about five years now. The family said he drank before in his younger years and after then but not every day. It was only a few years ago that he got really attached to the bottle and spent most of his time drinking.
According to the family, Ganga was in the habit of drinking and passing out on the roadside. He would sleep on the road when he was not able to make it home on any given night. On Tuesday when he was spotted on the road many persons passed him thinking he was just being himself.
The family said Ganga may have been alive while he was on the roadside but no one checked to see. It was not until they stopped a passing police vehicle and reported that he did not appear to be okay that an alarm was raised. The police later told the family that Ganga appeared to be dead.
Ganga was left to lie on the road for hours as the family tried in vain to get a vehicle to take him to the hospital. His daughter, Sabrina said she had doubts as to whether he was dead when people said he was and wanted to get him to a hospital.
