A 24-year-old mother of two was electrocuted around 2 pm yesterday while reconnecting her refrigerator.
Juliet Mohabir of Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice, who would have celebrated her third wedding anniversary today, met her demise after she tried to connect the refrigerator plug while her hands and a part of her clothing were wet.
After receiving the electrical shock she was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Mohabir’s sister-in-law, Premwattie “Delly” Sookdeo said that the fridge was unplugged to be cleaned and that two hours later Juliet, who was washing dishes decided to go and “plug it in.”
She said that they would normally take off the main switch before reconnecting the fridge but Mohabir did not want to go all the way upstairs to do so.
According to Sookdeo, she tried to stop Juliet from connecting the plug saying, “Girl, wait leh me see wah you doing; you can’t fit in the corner there to do it properly, you too fat Leh me plug it in.”
However, Mohabir insisted that she could handle it and seconds later she fell to the ground. Sookdeo said she also started to scream, “Run Delly, me gon dead, run and cut off the main switch.”
Mohabir’s mother-in-law, Kuntie “Zeena” Sookdeo said she was standing on the “landing when me hear them screaming and me run down to see what happen.” Kuntie, who was inconsolable when this newspaper visited, said that her daughter told her to take off the main switch but in the haste and her confused state she almost fell before she finally reached the switch.
Meanwhile, Premwattie said she lifted the injured woman out of the kitchen and started to “rub she up with methylated and limacol.”
She also tried to contact the woman’s husband, Looknauth Sookdeo, who works at Solid Gold Jewellery in the village, but his phone rang out. In tears, the husband told this newspaper that just after 2 pm two of his friends gave him the news that his wife got “shock.”
He hurried home on his bicycle and was hoping that it was nothing serious but when he got there he saw his wife lying on the ground. He immediately hired a bus and rushed her to the hospital.
He said he and his wife were looking forward to celebrating their wedding anniversary today but instead he is preparing for her funeral.
Today her parents, Karramchand and Narda, who reside next door, would have also been celebrating their birthdays but they too would be mourning on their special day.
The young mother is survived by her parents, siblings, husband and her daughter, Reshme who will be two years old tomorrow and her son Ganesh, who will celebrate his first birthday in December.
Premwattie and Kuntie lamented that Juliet was a nice and quiet person and said they got along well. They regretted that she met such a tragic end.
