“We weren’t expecting it but it happened, that’s life,” Lakeram Seepersaud’s daughter said of her father’s death on Monday, when Stabroek News visited her Campbellville home.
Seepersaud had been involved in an accident on the Vryheid’s Lust public road on Thursday night that took the life of his friend businessman Ronald Bassoo. Fifty-six-year-old Seepersaud had suffered a broken left leg along with injuries to his neck and back. A relative had previously told this newspaper that he did not have any feeling in his lower body. Seepersaud breathed his last around 1.30 am at the Georgetown hospital. On Tuesday the man’s daughter told this newspaper that he was told about Bassoo’s death shortly before he died but she doubts that that contributed to his demise.
Seepersaud had been driving the pick-up when he lost control of the vehicle and it toppled into a ditch across the road from the Kamboat Chinese Restaurant. When Stabroek News visited the scene of the accident on Friday an eyewitness said the vehicle came “spinning” down the road and toppled into the ditch. Bassoo pitched out and landed some distance away while Seepersaud was left in the vehicle, held in by his seatbelt.
The man explained that upon witnessing the accident, he called 911 for assistance. “I call 911 and they tell me to call 913,” he said, adding that “When I call 913 they tell me they will call me back.” He went on to say, “After I deh busy trying to get the man [Seepersaud] out of the vehicle I wasn’t paying attention to my cell phone. I had to call 913 again and a male dispatcher told me to “stop making them a fool.”” The man said after this exchange with the dispatcher he decided to take the injured men to the hospital.
When contacted about the matter hospital Chief Execu-tive Officer Michael Khan said he finds it very strange that the eyewitness said the dispatcher would call him back.
He said that about 11.20 pm on Monday the dispatcher received a call from a man (his name is stated on record) requesting an ambulance. However, the only ambulance on duty at that time had left at 11.05 pm for the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital. Khan went on to quote records saying that at 11.49 pm the man arrived at the hospital with the injured men in his vehicle. “GPH would like to extend sincere thanks to the man for bringing the injured parties to the hospital,” Khan said.
