Almost a month after being severely injured when the vessel he was in was rammed by another boat, goldsmith Tulsiram Sukdeo is conscious but has lost portions of his memory and cannot remember the incident.
“He is like a child,” his distressed daughter Naseema ‘Pam’ Singh said. The worried woman told this newspaper that while her father remembers relatives they were told that it is uncertain if he would ever be as he was before. She said that he is at home but cannot do anything for himself.
On the morning of April 24 Sukdeo was in a passenger boat, Shadow heading to Georgetown when it was rammed by a foreign vessel, the SV GEO. The 57-year-old father of three of Vreed-en-Hoop Railway Line, West Coast Demerara was severely injured and after being rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, underwent emergency surgery. He had suffered severe head injuries during the collision.
Police had said that the goldsmith was thrown out of the passenger boat and suffered injuries caused by the propeller of the engine. As a result of the incident, he has lost his left eye. The SV GEO sped away after the incident without rendering assistance.
A senior police officer had recently told this newspaper that the file on the matter has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice. The captain of the boat had been detained, interviewed and subsequently released.
Singh told this newspaper recently that even though her father is now at home, he cannot do anything for himself and his wife has to bathe and feed him. She said while he is recovering, the wound at his eye is becoming inflamed. They are awaiting a medical report.
While he remembers the family and speaks, Sukdeo does not recall the incident at all and Singh said that her father is not like how he was before and her mother does everything for him. “She has to take care of him like a child,” she stated. The woman had earlier told this newspaper that while her father is seeing out of his right eye, the other is oozing. According to Singh, they were told by doctors that Sukdeo had suffered multiple fractures to his skull and his brain is bruised.
She disclosed that they were told that it is not known whether he would be how he was before the incident again. She had said that he was vomiting and suffered seizures.
Singh had also been upset that the operators of the boat had not even expressed their sympathy or even made contact with the family. The boat, which had sped away without rendering assistance following the collision, is part of a joint project that involves the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T).
She said they were trying to make contact with the company to see if they can get assistance.
The woman said her father supported his wife and three grandchildren.
The SV GEO was here along with the marine survey vessel, MV Southern Relentless to conduct near shore surveys aimed at determining the best possible route for the landing of the new submarine fibre-optic cable. The project, the Guyana/Suriname Submarine Cable Project is being done at a cost of US$60 million by GT&T and Suriname’s national telephone carrier Telesur.
