Victim still in serious condition
Tulsiram Sukdeo, the goldsmith who was injured in an early morning collision between a passenger boat and another vessel in the Demerara River on Friday, remained in a serious condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital yesterday.
Meantime, Harbour Master Walton Skeete has completed his investigations, including recommendations and has submitted his report to Director-General of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) Claudette Rogers. The report has also been submitted to the police.
Sukdeo’s relatives told this newspaper yesterday that the man was “semi-conscious” and although he is somewhat responsive doctors have warned that his condition may relapse. “When you ask him if he know who talking to him he whispering yes,” a relative told this newspaper late yesterday afternoon. “We visit he this morning [yesterday]…he improve lil but doctors tell we he still in a serious condition.”
The 57-year-old man of Vreed-en-Hoop Railway Line, West Coast Demerara underwent emergency surgery at the hospital that day after having suffered severe head injuries during the collision. Police had said that Sukdeo was thrown out of the passenger boat and suffered injuries caused by the propeller of the engine. He has lost his left eye, relatives previously told Stabroek News. Sukdeo was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital where he remained up to late yesterday afternoon. The father of three, according to hospital sources, is still in a serious condition and has not yet “fully” regained consciousness.
When contacted yesterday, Skeete said that he submitted his report on his investigations yesterday and it is now up to the Maritime Administration and the police to decide what action to take. He declined to disclose his recommendations and referred this newspaper to the MARAD Director-General. When this newspaper contacted Rogers’s office yesterday, her secretary said that the reporter should call back today. This newspaper understands that one of the findings in the report was that there was an “error of judgment”.
Meantime, Skeete took the opportunity to comment on an article in yesterday’s Guyana Times, headlined ‘Speedboat accident highlights shed dangers’. The article said that the Parika to Supenaam speedboat operators are concerned that the sheds on the boats are a danger and may have contributed to the Demerara River collision. However, Skeete said the sheds actually made the boat safer. “If it wasn’t for that shed it could have been worse,” he asserted.
