A Texila American University lecturer and former University of Guyana valedictorian drowned while at a pre-birthday celebration at Parika Backdam on Sunday, two days before he would have celebrated his 32nd birth anniversary.
Michael George, 31, of Gap Road, La Jalousie, West Coast Demerara, and a father of two, died on Sunday afternoon while in the company of three friends, two of whom were said to be retired officers from the army who invited him to hang out for a birthday drink.
When Stabroek News visited relatives of the deceased at their Patentia Housing Scheme home, Morris George, the deceased’s father along with a brother had just returned from meeting with the pathologist who performed the autopsy. Morris said the incident occurred shortly after 4pm. Michael had called his wife at 3:45pm informing her to prepare their two children because he would be leaving shortly to pick them up to head home.
Narvin George, a brother of the deceas-ed who was seated nearby, explained that Michael and his family had arrived at his in-laws’ home situated on the Parika/Hubu Road, where he had his lunch and had left with his father-in-law and two children to visit a relative (the father-in-law’s sister) who lived along the same road. However, Michael received a call from his friends inviting him to hang out with them.
Morris related that when Michael decided he was going to leave them to meet with his friends, his two-year-old son began crying. According to Morris as was told to him by Michael’s father-in-law, he turned to the now dead man and said, “You leaving this boy and he crying, you don’t do this,” to which Michael replied that he was just going to take a drink. Morris also said that the father-in-law told him that the last time he saw Michael alive was when he dropped him off at the koker for him to await his friends. “He was even supposed to go to mandir that morning but didn’t go”, Narvin had added.
The dead man’s brother also told this newspaper, that while those in his company are known to his in-laws, they were not the ones to inform his family of the incident, but rather a woman, who was nearby, told a taxi driver to inform Michael’s father that he had drowned. He also stated that this led family members to be suspicious about foul play being involved in the death of his brother since the men had access to vehicles or could have called the family to inform them of the incident. Narvin and the family would later learn of the man’s demise via a call from Michael’s mother-in-law.
Narvin debated that the men who would have been in the army would have had CPR training, yet when the deceased’s wife arrived at the scene, she alleges that she saw the men pushing down on his back with his head still submerged in the water. His sister-in-law, he added, told him that upon turning him over with the help of one of his three friends who were there, his tongue was found to be hanging outside of his mouth and he had vomited the food that he had eaten only hours before.
He said also, that the men who shared different stories of what took place, had said that Michael walked into the water and disappeared while another stated that he ran and plunged into the water.
When the police arrived, they transported the man to the Leonora Cottage Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The post-mortem was performed by government pathologist Nehaul Singh yesterday morning at Ezekiel’s Funeral Home. The police report of the post mortem as seen by this newspaper gives the cause of death as “drowning compounded by blunt trauma to the head.”
Christopher George, another brother of the dead man, when contacted by this newspaper, said that the post- mortem also showed a minor fracture to Michael’s neck. “The post-mortem says that my brother died as a result of drowning and also suffered a hair line fracture to the left side of his head and a minor fracture to the right side of his neck,” said Christopher. The man further said that the pathologist explained to him and other family members that Michael, who was under the influence of alcohol, may have slipped and fell which led to his drowning.
The men who were with Michael at the time of the incident, Christopher said, had related that one time they saw Michael standing in the water and when they looked again shortly after, he was nowhere to be seen. Christopher said that his brother could not swim.
Michael, the youngest of four brothers was described as someone who was peaceful as well as ambitious. He was a former student of West Demerara Secondary School, had graduated as the school’s valedictorian in 2005, and went on to read for a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry at the University of Guyana, where he again graduated as valedictorian in 2010. He had also attained a PhD in Biochemistry Engineering from the University of Alberta. At the time of his death, he was a lecturer at the Texila American University.
The cremation for Michael is scheduled for tomorrow at 2pm at the Kashi Dhaam Hindu Crematorium, Ruimzigt, West Coast Demerara.
Regional Commander, Errol Watts informed that no one has been arrested. However, an investigation into the matter is still ongoing.
