It has been almost two weeks since a woman reported being bitten in the creek at the Splashmins Resort reportedly by a piranha, the second such incident in five weeks at the same facility.
To date the authorities have been silent on both occurrences at Linden/Soesdyke Highway resort.
This newspaper made several efforts to contact the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce as well as the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, to no avail. However, the Public Relations Officer for the Tourism Ministry had previously told Stabroek News that the ministry was aware of the incidents and was looking into them. The resort has not provided any information to Stabroek News despite repeated calls.
The second victim, a 24-year-old woman, who did not wish to be identified, told Stabroek News that she was bitten on the afternoon of January 28 and that injury has now left her limping.
The young woman said that she and a group of friends along with two children were in the water at the resort at about 3 pm when tragedy struck.
“It was like around ten persons… we were playing in the water with a ball. Then I asked my boyfriend to go bring my phone because, you know, I was expecting calls. As I was waiting for him to return, I felt as though something bit me and as I tried to hop out of the water on my other foot, I told another guy that something bit me and when he checked he saw the bite and the blood.”
She said that after the resort staff saw what was going on, first aid personnel approached her, but they had no appropriate dressings to attend to the injury.
“… My boyfriend just took my foot and wrap it up with a piece of cloth. He ask if we were eating in the water and we told him no,” the young woman related. “Then another man came and said that he was the owner son and he as well started to ask if we were eating in the water and everybody keep telling him no, no, because at that point everyone was already upset because they didn’t come with any proper help, they just come to ask those questions. And then he said that it have piranha in the water and that they usually come around when persons eating in the water.”
The victim said she was even more certain that a piranha had bitten her once she got to the hospital.
“We went to the Diamond hospital and when I got there a nurse said that it was a fish bite. Then when I meet with the doctor, I was told that it was a piranha bite and that was also written on the medical that was given to me,” she said.
Three weeks prior to this attack, 29-year-old Ravindra Compton had sustained similar injuries at the Splashmins Resort.
