A mid-afternoon outing for a Paradise, East Coast Demerara family turned tragic yesterday when a 17-year-old boy died by drowning in the swimming pool of the Ocean View International Hotel at Liliendaal.
Dead is Cyon Peterkin of Lot 27, Paradise and Melanie Damishana.
According to reports, around 3 pm yesterday, the young man jumped into the shallow end of the pool and minutes later, his relatives saw him waving his hands as he moved in the pool. Soon after, the young man’s relatives could not see him anymore and they scrambled for help.
However, about 10 minutes later, the lad’s lifeless body was pulled out of the deep end of the pool by persons staying at the hotel.
According to a relative, Peterkin, who was expected to commence studies at the Guyana School of Agricul-ture on Monday, was taking photographs with his cousins at the side of the pool and he subsequently told them that he was going to swim before the others.
She said that he was warned by his older relatives not to go into the pool until the others were ready but she noted that he jumped into the pool and stated that he knew how to swim.
“He jump in the pool and we see he jumping up and down and waving at we so we said he just playing around and we throw one a dem round thing (lifebuoy)to he after we ain’t seeing he no more“, she related. The teary–eyed women said that another relative ran for assistance from hotel staff but according to her, a man who came to their assistance “tekkin he time wid he shoes and he shirt button while me cousin deh at the bottom deh”.
According to persons on the scene, a young man who is staying at the hotel ran out to see what was happening and immediately plunged into the pool in search of Peterkin.
She said that other persons subsequently joined the search.
”A boy staying here from Surama plunge in the pool and like about 10 minutes later he raise up and start pulling he (Peterkin) and we notice blood coming up from the bottom“, the man related.
He said that patrons at the hotel are usually warned that a section of the pool is more than 12 feet deep and according to him, there is always a hotel staffer on hand to assist whenever persons encounter difficulties while swimming in the pool.
When this newspaper arrived at the scene yesterday, Peterkin’s cousins cried uncontrollably as his lifeless body lay at the side of the pool; others stood and watched in disbelief. A police officer and staffer of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) subsequently arrived on the scene.
According to a cousin, the young man left his home in the company of his relatives to “hang out“ at the hotel. She said that he left home without heeding his mother’s warning, adding that his parents were strict as regards him and his siblings leaving their home.
She said too that Peterkin cheated death once five years ago after he was struck down by a truck on the Public Road at Paradise.
At the time he was rushed to the GPH in a semi-conscious state and several days later he regained consciousness.
His body is at the GPH morgue awaiting a post– mortem examination.
