Chairman of the Linden Fund USA, Bishop Dr. Michael Clarke has expressed gratitude to those persons, who helped in pulling Dr. Walter Kyte from the minibus that was submerged in the Kairuni Creek on Sunday.
Dr. Clarke and the now hospitalized Dr. Kyte came to Guyana as part of a four-member team of US-based Guyanese education professionals to conduct the annual Professional Development Workshop in Linden – a collaboration of the Linden Fund USA and the Region Ten Department of Education. Dr. Clarke said Dr. Kyte did not receive his luggage
when he arrived in the country on Saturday and he was travelling to the city on Sunday afternoon to collect it from a relative when the accident occurred.
According to Dr. Clarke, the three-day exercise, geared to provide Region Ten education professionals with updated skills, will this year be definitely affected by Dr. Kyte’s unanticipated absence. Dr. Kyte, one of the leading education professionals in the city of New York, is the head of the Education Fund of the Linden Fund USA and was expected to play a pivotal role in the programme, which runs from August 27 to 29 at the Mackenzie Primary School under the theme: “Together we can make a difference”.
Expressing concern at Dr. Kyte’s medical condition, Dr. Clarke said that he has been transferred to the Georgetown Hospital. “Since the accident he has been complaining of difficulty in breathing,” Dr. Clarke said, “and once his condition is stabilized, effort would be made to get him back to the US as quickly as possible.”
He said that although this year’s professional development programme will be affected by Dr. Kyte’s untimely absence, it will be continued by the other competent professionals of the team – Dr. Kelwyn Thomas, Steve Harvey and himself.
“Things will go on as planned but we will seriously miss Dr. Kyte’s input since he always gives serious thought to whatever he does,” Bishop Clarke said, adding the hope that God would bring him back to perfect health.
In thanking those persons in Linden and at the scene of the accident who provided assistance to the victims of the accident, Dr. Clarke expressed especial thanks to Jeanette Campbell, a Philippine national, who along with a young man pulled Dr. Kyte from the submerged bus. “Just imagine,” Dr. Clarke said, “she is so petite, less than five feet tall and she was able to pull a man, who is more than two hundred pounds from the bus and she was injured. She said at one time she thought that she was pulling a fridge.”
Two persons died in the accident – a twenty-three-year-old mother of two, Anastasia Cole of Ituni and a six-week-old infant, Taquayyah Shepard. Several persons suffered injuries in the accident, particularly lacerations to the head and upper part of the body.
