The 14-year-old boy who was catapulted into the Pomeroon River on Wednesday after another boat collided with the one he and his relatives were in regained consciousness yesterday morning in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Brad Cabose of Grant Providence, Lower Pomeroon River, was on his way home from school in a speedboat in the company of his aunt, Mignon Alphonso and her one-year-old son and fifteen-year-old daughter when a boat travelling in the opposite direction collided with them at just around 12:30 pm.
Alphonso recounting the incident at the hospital yesterday said that Cabose was at the bow of the boat and as a result he was thrown overboard and lost consciousness. “De side ah we boat bruk out and all ah we went in de water but me lil daughter hold onto to me lil son”.
She said that Cabose was submerged for a while before being pulled out of the river by the man who had piloted the boat that collided with theirs. “I start foh scream and holla fuh Brad when I din see he” she said. Alphonso further stated that sometime after she saw one of Cabose’s boots floating, then she saw his foot and pulled him to the surface and later handed him to the man who had piloted the other boat.
She said that when all of them got into the other man’s boat, Cabose was not responding to their attempts to revive him and that they immediately rushed him to the Charity Hospital in Essequibo. Cabose’s condition was reportedly listed as critical and arrangements were then made for him to fly to the city. Cabose was air-dashed on a Roraima Airways flight and later transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital from Ogle.
Alphonso’s mother Wanda Alphonso was elated when Stabroek News visited the hospital. “He talking and he know and remember everybody, and he alright thank God” she said. Wanda had stated that she was at Port Kaituma, Region One, when she heard about the accident. She said that she had arrived in the city on Thursday morning and was relieved that Cabose was alive.
