A three-year-old Liverpool, Corentyne boy is slowly recovering from head and other injuries he sustained after an electrical pole broke and fell on him as he was walking in his family’s yard on Saturday.
The boy, Gerald Durant, was taken to the Port Mourant Hospital in an unconscious state, nursing head and neck injuries and he was subsequently transferred to the New Amsterdam and later the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for treatment. He has since been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the GPH and his condition was listed as stable yesterday afternoon.
According to Orlando Durant, his son was sent by his mother to turn off a tap at the stand pipe in the family’s Lot 23 Liverpool village yard on Saturday around 10 am. He said his wife was standing at the door looking at the second of their two sons when the incident occurred.
“He already reach and turn off the pipe and when he was running back in the yard, this pole just crashed on him,” the father said.
He said his wife was momentarily in shock and then rushed to his assistance but she was unable to pull their son out from under the structure.
A relative subsequently removed the pole and Gerald was immediately rushed to the hospital, bleeding through his nose. Durant said that the pole, which was placed in the family’s yard by the power company several years ago, was rotting.
According to the distraught carpenter, some time Saturday evening several night shift workers attached to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) visited the area to remove the wires. He said the men told the family that what happened, “is none of them business and that we gah try deh”.
Durant explained that several years ago, the family visited GPL and requested that the power company plant an electrical pole on the roadway in proximity to his home in order for the home to receive electricity. He said the entity “disagreed” with his idea and instead advised that the pole be planted in his yard.
He said that since he had no alternative, “I go with what they say and we buy the pole and they plant it and wire it.”
The man said last evening that his family was concerned about the entire incident since it could have been avoided had the power company heeded his request. “Right now is two sons I got and he [Gerald] is the baby one and I just want God see that he recover then I gon deal with them [GPL],” Durant said.
The man said he was concerned that no official from the company had visited his son or contacted the family. Efforts last evening to obtain a comment from GPL were futile.
