“All I wish for is he wake up,” Shrandhanand Sankar’s mother Jean says as she maintains a vigil at her son’s bedside at the Georgetown hospital where he remains in a coma attached to a life support machine.
On September 27, around 9.30 pm, 26-year-old Sankar and his friend Aravin Narine had disembarked a car in front of his home when they were both struck down by a speeding car heading east along the Cornelia Ida Public Road. Narine had been knocked off his feet but Sankar was reportedly pitched a few feet into the air before coming to a bumpy landing. The friends were taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, Sankar in an unconsciousness state, where they were treated and later transferred to the Georgetown hospital.
However, though Narine was discharged Sankar was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit as he had slipped into a coma.
The man suffered severe head injuries, a punctured rib cage and is relying on life support. “I feeling sick, he father was in the hospital a couple a days cause he get sick too, de situation getting all ah we sick,” the distraught woman said on Thursday. “He is as genuine as they come,” she said, adding that a few of her son’s friends had attempted to visit him but stopped short at the ICU door “cause dey can’t tek to see him like dah.” The woman said many religious leaders have been visiting Sankar daily to offer prayers for him but “Since de accident I haven’t seen or heard from de man that hit me son down.”Sankar’s friends recall him as a person who excelled at many endeavours and loved a game of cricket. He also assists the children at the Prabhu Sharan Orphanage while pursuing courses that allowed him to become an assistant draughtsman in Regent Three. Sankar is also a professional barber.
Although jovial and popular among his friends, Sankar is said to be a quiet individual.
