A farmer is battling memory loss as he recuperates in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital after he was severely beaten at the start of the month.
Gurudeo John of 181 Calendar Street, Albouystown had to undergo surgery to clear a clot which developed in his brain. He spent eight days in the Intensive Care Unit before being transferred to the HDU. His family is now hoping that he recovers fully, since they were told by doctors that he could suffer amnesia. “Right now we can only hope for the best and that he recover normal,” Veerapen, his father, said.
While he is conscious of what is going on around him, Gurudeo cannot speak. He moves his mouth but no sounds come out. When asked how he was doing he pointed to his head. According to his relatives, he complains of “cramps” in his head.
John, Veerapen explained, was attacked by a group of men at a family wedding he had attended with three friends at Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara on July 4.
The father believes the attack was one of mistaken identity since his son never went to the area prior to the wedding. He recounted to this newspaper what his son had told him of the attack. “At the wedding house, he say a guy hug him and walked with him to the road,” Veerapen said.
The road, he continued, was “pitch black dark” and the man that was hugging his son began to choke him and slapped him. “He tried to push the guy away you know and then four more come out and they beat he mercilessly,” the man noted.
Veerapen said his son told him that his attackers did not tell him anything as they beat him. Gurudeo, after the beating, walked out of the street and caught a taxi and directed him to his parents’ Albouystown home. “He come home minutes to three. I remember I wake up 2.30 ’cause I fall asleep and when I realise me ain’t open the door for him I call he phone and no answer,” Veerapen recalled. He said that when he phoned his son’s friends, they said they did not know where he was.
A telephone call from the taxi driver who brought his battered son home was how he knew where his son was, Veerapen said. “He (the taxi driver) tell me fuh open the door, he bring me son home.”
According to the man, when his son walked in the house “his skin was soaked,” as he was bleeding from the side of his head which had swollen. There was also a gash over his eye and the back of his head. “The driver ask if I want he wait fuh carry he to the hospital but Gurudeo say he want to bathe,” said Veerapen.
It was while bathing that Gurudeo told his father what happened before almost falling along the stairs. “I see he staggering on the stairs and I catch he before he faint and we call another taxi and bring he to the hospital,” he said.
A report was made to the La Grange Police Station, the father said. Subsequently two persons were held by the police. They were said to have attended the wedding and were last seen leaving with Gurudeo before the attack.
Meanwhile, Gurudeo’s wife, Indranie John, said that she was doing her best, given the circumstances. She pointed out that her husband was the breadwinner of the family, and the eldest of her two sons is an asthmatic. She added that she is staying at her parents on the Highway but she is also receiving support from her in-laws.