Two workers from the Blairmont Sugar Estate are experiencing excruciating stomach and back pain after they were injured separately on the job during last month.
The two men, Zahir Yacoob, 41, of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice, a factory worker whose description is “cleaning vessel and bagging sugar” and Shahabudeen Hack, 40 a cane-harvester of Cotton Tree are both unable to work.
Yacoob, who did that job for over 18 years, told Stabroek News that onAugust 21 he and three other persons were cleaning the “holes” in a large vessel around 7:45 am when there was a loud vibrating sound.
His colleagues ran out and when he approached the hole to go out behind them the noise stopped and he went back to work.
Shortly after, there was a loud explosion. He was halfway running out while a colleague was trying to get in. The explosion then “pitched me to the hole and I became unconscious.”
When he regained consciousness, he was at the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was in severe pain and was vomiting blood. He was discharged from hospital around midday the following day.
He told this newspaper that yesterday he was still experiencing “consistent [stomach] pain” and was having difficulty breathing and had to go back to the hospital for treatment.
Since the accident, officials from the estate visited once at his home and gave him an accident card to sign. They also promised to “get back to me.”
The estate sent for him and he visited the office yesterday. He said the “safety officer told me he don’t know what caused that explosion.”
However, Yacoob got information that persons “were doing some welding at the top [of the vessel] and the gas from the welding rod went down and caused the explosion.”
He told this newspaper that as far as he was concerned “it [the accident] is negligence on the part of management. If I had known that persons were working above I would not have gone into the vessel.”
He said he may not be able to work for about one month. The estate’s doctor gave him “seven days NIS [National Insurance Scheme] leave and tell me to get back to him if I am not well.”
According to him, he would normally do the maintenance work every Monday but because of the recent strike at the estate, he did the cleaning on the Friday [at 7:30 am] after getting into his safety gear.
The vessel, he said, contained “450 stainless steel tubes that removes the sediment from the juice.”
In the case of Hack, he cannot bend his back, is barely able to walk and has to be in a lying position most of the time.
He told this newspaper that on August 13, he was fetching cane when he slid and fell on a ramp and injured his back.
He was rushed to the estate’s dispensary via a punt that was pulled by a tractor and then by a truck. He recalled that when he was transferred to the truck the pain became more intense and he started to cry.
He was placed on a stretcher at the dispensary and given an injection.
About one hour later he told the dispensary to contact his wife and she accompanied him in the ambulance to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
He was admitted for eight days before being transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). Doctors at the GPH ordered a scan and paid part of the cost.
He said his wife barely had enough money to pay the other part. The doctor gave him 21 days sick leave.
He is distressed that he has been bedridden for 23 days and is not earning money to maintain his family. He got a little help from persons and that is almost exhausted. He also has installments to pay and he “had to call and beg the store for some more time.”
Hack pointed out that he called the NIS office at Fort Wellington and the officers told him that his claim was not ready.
Persons were supposed to get claims within two weeks but “they said don’t know when I would get it and that they would post it when it ready.”
He said too that the estate officials promised to visit him but “me ain’t see any of them up to now.”
