A man died yesterday after he fell from a coconut tree on Lamaha Street, Newtown, Kitty and lay there for more than an hour waiting for an ambulance.
Rueben Cumberbatch, 51, of Wismar, Linden, fell from a coconut tree in his cousin’s backyard around 4.30 pm. According to his cousin, who asked not to be named, Cumberbatch was warned not to climb the tree but he insisted on doing so. He had explained that he had been given money by another cousin to buy a bag of coconuts.
The man said Cumberbatch told him that he had spent the money and therefore needed to pick the fresh coconuts from his backyard. He stated that he left Cumberbatch and went to sit on his verandah. A few minutes later, he said, a tenant in the yard called him and told him that his cousin had just fallen from the tree.
“When we go at the back he was panting for breath and we told him not to move,” the man said.
One tenant, who lives in the yard, said she had called the Georgetown Public Hospital several times for an ambulance but was told that there was none. “When I called back a third time, a girl answer the phone and said ‘I already tell you we don’t have any’ and hang up,” she said.
She said an hour later someone from the hospital called back and stated that the ambulance was on its way to the house. “They reach here minutes to six when the man done dead. When we call he was breathing they could have done something and save the man’s life,” she added.
Last night, his body was removed from the backyard and taken to the Lyken’s Funeral Home.
