-guesthouse workers turned away GPL crew
Beula Browne, 58, the woman who passed away after suffering electrical shock at the Secret Villa Guesthouse, died as a result of cerebral haemorrhage according to a post-mortem performed on her body yesterday.
The post-mortem report, prepared by pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh said another factor that gave rise to the woman’s death was hypertension, while a contributing factor was burns sustained to her fingers.
Browne, who was the manager of the guesthouse, died after she was reportedly electrocuted on the premises sometime on Sunday. Reports were that she was responding to a neighbour’s call about a sparking wire that runs to the guesthouse when the incident occurred.
Yesterday relatives of the woman, who was a mother of three, were still reluctant to speak about her death, with her daughter stating that they are leaving everything in the hands of God.
The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) has said it responded to the report about a sparking wire at the guesthouse at Land of Canaan on Sunday but was refused entry by the on duty employees who insisted that nothing had happened. Managing Director at GPL Bharrat Dindyal told Stabroek News that an emergency crew from the power company responded to the report on Sunday about a wire sparking near the guesthouse, but was unable to investigate because they were denied entry on the premises.
He said that employees on duty at the guesthouse denied that there was an electrical problem saying that nothing had happened there. Dindyal said that GPL has the authority to check the meter at a particular premise, but is restrained from going beyond that point. He added that the power company could not investigate because of this.
However, the Managing Director said that GPL will contact the Government Electrical Engineer and request assistance since the government engineer is allowed to investigate such incidents. He said that on Tuesday the engineer was out in the fields and efforts to contact him had proved futile.
Reports are that an electricity pole in the area, which is outside the guesthouse, burst into flames some time after midday on Sunday following a loud explosion.
Browne was called out by a neighbour and alerted to the sparking wire and reportedly acted on this. She went to the main switch of the guesthouse and made an attempt to turn it off and was electrocuted. She was rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre nursing burn injuries to her hands and was later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she died.
The staff accompanying Browne to Diamond had informed doctors that she suffered with high blood pressure, omitting to say that the woman had suffered an electric shock, reports said.
Browne was unable to speak while she was at the hospital, this newspaper was told. The police were called in to investigate the incident and a probe is ongoing. Management at the guesthouse remains tightlipped on the incident. An employee had told Stabroek News that she had no knowledge of any person being electrocuted on the premises, adding “that was not here.”
