Patentia boy, 11, critical, but stable after hit and run accident

 Mayor Hamilton Green during a visit to Sameer Samshuddin in the Paediatric Ward at the GPH. The boy’s father, Mohammed Samshuddin, looks on.
Mayor Hamilton Green during a visit to Sameer Samshuddin in the Paediatric Ward at the GPH. The boy’s father, Mohammed Samshuddin, looks on.

Eleven-year-old Lawrence Paul was last evening struck down in front of his Lot 44 Church Street, Patentia, West Coast Demerara home by a hit and run driver, as he was riding to a nearby shop on an errand for his mother.

He is currently in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), nursing severe head injuries.

The child has already had X-rays, a Computerized Tomography (CT) scan and surgery and up to press time last night was in a conscious state and responding to commands.

His mother, Ramona Paul, told Stabroek News that she had sent the Patentia Primary School child to a nearby shop to purchase an item for her. She said that not more than five minutes after as she was preparing to do laundry, his cousin came with the message that he had been hit by a car and was lying on the road in an unconscious state.

The mother said she did not witness the accident and was too distraught to recall everything her child’s cousin told her about the accident.

However, she said she accompanied her son to the GPH where she was told that he needed a CT which would cost some $14,000 at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital. She added that the GPH ambulance took her and her son to the Mercy Hospital where the radiation scans were done.

Upon completion they were taken back to GPH, where he received treatment for the head injuries he sustained, which included several huge gashes to the back of his head.

Up to press time the child was listed as critical but stable.