Chief Executive Officer of COPS Security and former army Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Gaskin died yesterday, after suffering internal injuries when he fell from his motorcycle at the South Dakota Circuit, Timehri.
Gaskin, 54, of Bel Air Gardens, who was also a lawyer, was at the time practising for a race meet scheduled for next month. He is said to have suffered a broken rib, which subsequently punctured a lung.
Gaskin’s son, Graeme Gaskin, who accompanied his father to the circuit, told Stabroek News that it was sometime around 2:30pm when someone shouted “the big man fall down.” After looking at the bikes coming around the turn, he was sure that it was his father who was involved in the mishap since he did not appear among the other racers.
“When I went out, he was lying there and I send to get the vehicle to get him down to town as quickly as possible,” the younger Gaskin said. He noted that after removing his father’s helmet, he saw some blood around his mouth. He did not think his condition was very serious.
“We left and nobody thought that it was that bad because it was internal bleeding… I did not realise it was so serious,” he stated. Gaskin was rushed to the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where he subsequently died at 6:06pm, according to one relative.
At the family’s home, Noreen Gaskin, the man’s widow, was still in shock. She said that she received the news from her son immediately after the accident occurred. “His son called me and told me… They ran, saw him on the ground and picked him up. I heard he blacked out and it was an enclosed helmet. I heard the entire front of the helmet has been broken or gone or something like that. I haven’t seen anything,” the woman said.
She explained that although Gaskin was not breathing properly, she was told that he was speaking on the way down to the hospital. “I called the driver to go for him… I heard he was conscious on the way; he was talking to them and telling the driver not to go so fast,” she relayed.
His wife said according to the information she had received, Gaskin’s lung, after being ruptured, began filling up with fluids, making breathing difficult. Doctors, she noted, tried desperately to save her husband’s life.
“They called me to say he had a broken rib and his lung was filling up with fluid and they were trying to drain it so he can breathe properly.
About five minutes after I got another call saying come now, it doesn’t look good. I had to sign some documents for a surgery. They really tried with him. They went fifteen minutes over the allocated time for the CPR,” she explained.
However, Mrs. Gaskin said after she viewed her husband, he appeared to have died already. “By time I got there, I think I was looking at a dead man. He was there strapped up, he was lifeless. His face was frozen, his eyelids and everything, he was stone cold,” she recalled.
In addition to his wife and son, Gaskin is also survived by a daughter, Geneva Gaskin.
His son told this newspaper that riding was his passion and that he enjoyed it for recreational purposes. One employee at his home, said to be a clerk, described him as agile, while noting that words could not describe his personality.
Other employees at the security firm said they were saddened at his passing and described him as a good man who always treated his workers well.
