Friend in hospital after dramatic rescue
The ‘blacka’ (black-water canal) claimed the life of a nine-year-old boy while quick action by Sophia residents saved the life of his ten-year-old friend, after the duo somehow managed to get in the deep water of the canal at Farmers Plot, Sophia yesterday.
Dead is Akeem Hinds, a student of the Tucville Primary School and who lived at Lot 1, Gully-Side, Tucville. His friend, Shakeel Grovner of 150 Guyhoc Park has been admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
The tragic incident occurred shortly before 4 pm yesterday. Reports are that the companions, who, according to residents, could almost always be found by the canal somehow managed to get into the deep water of the trench, which is one of two that separates Sophia from Guyhoc Park. Relatives of Hinds were too distraught to say anything much but residents said that the duo could not swim. When they were pulled from the water, they were both fully clothed and the area where they went under the water is at least seven feet away from a wooden bridge. Persons who lived around the spot could not say how the duo managed to get themselves into the deep water but noted that the companions could almost always be found around the area. There was a report that the two boys were with other friends but this could not be verified.
Roydon Daniels, who lived close to where the incident occurred recalled that he was sitting at his home, which is surrounded by a zinc fence, when he heard someone calling him by his nickname ‘Puri Man’. He said he rushed out and saw a youth on a bicycle on the bridge. “He seh two youth man gan down deh, they drowning”, Daniels recounted.
“By the time I come I barely see a shirt”, Daniels related and said that he immediately jumped in. The man said that he has a problem with one of his hands and this prevented him from holding on to any of the youths and so he called his foster son, 12-year-old Prince Gardner, who also jumped in and brought out one of the youths, identified as Grovner. Another resident was called and he brought up the still body of Hinds, ten minutes after Grovner was fished out.
Daniels said that a resident performed mouth-to-mouth respiration on Grovner and he responded and a car was stopped and he was taken to the GPH. When Hinds body was retrieved, residents attempted to resuscitate him by the same method, but they said that he did not respond. Another car was stopped and took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Daniels expressed anger at the youth on the bicycle, who had called him asking why he could not have jumped in to save the two boys. He said that after he (the youth) had called him, he rode away. He said that it was probably because of the clothes that the youth was wearing that he did not jump in but argued that this was no excuse. “He coulda jump overboard for the boys them”, Daniels declared. He stated that apart from the youth on the bicycle, another small boy was there. “He seh he passing and he seh he see these boys fall overboard”, Daniels related.
Meantime, wails rented the air at Hinds home as his mother, Marcelle Fordyce wept at the loss of her son. When this newspaper visited the home yesterday afternoon, neighbours gathered to comfort the distraught mother of six, who was hollering her son’s name uncontrollably. One of her sons, 15-year-old Laurax said that his mother was ‘lying down” inside when Akeem left the yard to go out on the road with his friends. Other relatives gathered there were grief-stricken.
Neighbours who congregated at the house were heard saying that the children especially Akeem and his 5-year-old sister Kenya would always be going around the neighbourhood. One woman related that she always sent them home when she saw them lingering around the area. “Is a normal thing with them,” another woman said. Some young men standing on the road told Stabroek News that speaking to children in the area is “like a waste of time even when yuh talking to them for dey own good.” Besides those already mentioned Akeem had three other sibling; Adrian 22, Tamika 20 and Stephan 13.
Other residents, who gathered at the spot where the incident occurred, told Stabroek News that the two boys could almost always be found at the canal and they would often chase then from there. Daniels said that it was only on Saturday that he had told them to get away from the canal after he observed them attempting to fish. The residents said that numerous youths would often swim or gather at the canal and though they would often times warn them about it, the youths persisted and their actions were not always of the best sort.
According to the residents, shortly before the incident, the two boys were chased away from a nearby swimming spot by another resident. They said that the boys often came to watch other persons swim and but according to them, the duo could not swim. “This is sad though, this is sad”, Daniels said.
The ‘blacka’ is a popular spot for persons to swim and residents noted that people came from various parts of the city to do so. In some places, it is filled with weeds and is very deep. While popular, the canal has claimed a number of lives over the years. (Gaulbert Sutherland and Melissa Charles)
