The parents of the Australian who was shot during last month’s attack at Safraz Bar have expressed frustration at their failed attempts to return him to his homeland for urgent medical attention
According to yesterday’s edition of the Australian Herald, Jason Montgomery remains in a critical condition here.
The article headlined `Three men walk into bar, Queenslander shot’, related that the man’s mother, Sandy Brosnan, was frustrated at the “brick walls and red tape” she has encountered in trying to have her son returned to Australia for urgent medical treatment. Montgomery, it said has been working in Guyana as a cleaning products representative.
“He’s flat out on his back in a very bad way, in a foreign country a long way from home, and no-one seems to be able to help us get him home,” Brosnan was quoted as saying said.
“I have contacted an American company which says they can arrange transport, but they want about Aus$2400 up front, so I asked the department to check on their credentials and they refused. They apparently don’t want to buy into it for legal liability reasons.” she added.
Meanwhile the injured man’s business associate, Mark Xavier told Stabroek News yesterday that the doctor at the city hospital where he is a patient had given the go ahead for him to travel but has indicated that he needed to be accompanied.
Xavier explained that it would take about three days, including a number of stops before arriving in Australia and the tubes that are attached to Montgomery will need to be changed regularly.
Xavier indicated to this newspaper that there are plans to train him to do these things as his friend has asked him to accompany him on the trip and he has agreed.
Giving an up date on the injured man’s condition, he said that the Australian is active and is eating. The 36-year-old Australian sustained a gunshot wound to his abdomen and after undergoing surgery was admitted to the High Dependency Unit of the Georgetown Hospital.
However three days later he was rushed to a private hospital. It was later determined that two litres of fluid had leaked from Montgomery’s breached intestines.
The man underwent a second operation and was admitted. He has been a patient of that hospital ever since.
He said though that while the doctors have given a good prognosis, they have said that Montgomery “is not out of the woods yet”. He said that the man’s relatives are not concentrating on coming here but rather getting him to Australia.
Around 9.10 pm on January 8, three men, two of whom were armed with handguns, attacked and robbed patrons and staff at Safraz bar located on David Street, Kitty, Georgetown fatally wounding waitress Kulmattie Singh in the process. During the robbery, the Australian and another man were injured.
Several persons were relieved of their jewellery, cash and cellular phones by the unmasked men in addition to the proceeds of the day’s sales from the bartender.
Several suspects were held but they were released after questioning.
Police are in the process of setting up a special team to investigate this incident along with two others which have been linked through ballistic testing of spent shells recovered from crime scenes.
