Escaping to a recently dug canal for some fun seemed like the perfect Sunday afternoon for a group of Canje boys but their outing ended in tragedy when 12-year-old Michael Cadogan drowned.
Michael left his Fort Ordinance Scheme home on Sunday afternoon without his parents’ permission to go swimming with his friends. Boys in the area had recently been making use of a canal dug near a koker by regional officials in an effort to improve drainage in the area. The canal is between Fort Ordinance and Sheet Anchor. Stabroek News was told that prior to being dug, the area was a dam which was used as an access point to the two areas.
Charles Cadogan, the boy’s father, said that he and his wife Teresa had warned his son against swimming in the canal. He said he had gone out to work and left Michael at home with his mother and three siblings. However, when he returned home, Michael was not there. At about 3:30 pm, word reached the family home that all was not well with the boy. “I was home and I received a message from a cousin that something was wrong with Michael…he was frothing at the mouth,” Charles said. The father rushed to the koker but his son had already been taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital. He then rushed to the hospital where he was informed of his son’s death.
Michael was pulled from the water by his cousin, Jermaine Lampkin. Lampkin said he and other friends had been swimming in the canal when Michael and his friends came and joined them. He said the boys were swimming in a particular part of the canal but moved to another part because they found the water to be a bit too deep.
He said Michael and his friends moved to another part of the canal and swam there for about half an hour. After a while, someone called out saying that Michael had dived into the water and had not risen. Lampkin said he made a frantic attempt to find his cousin. He eventually had to open the koker door and found him in the vicinity.
When Michael was found, Lampkin recalled, he was breathing lightly while frothing from the mouth. “His heart deh still beating,” he said. The boy was then rushed to the hospital.
However, Charles was critical of the medical attention that his son received. According to him, there was a general slothfulness in the approach of the medical personnel there, especially considering that his son was still alive when he arrived at the hospital. The man said the staff did not even have the decency to tell him that his son had died. It was a security guard who disclosed the information to him.
Charles also expressed his disappointment that there was no warning sign placed by the officials after the canal was dug. He said he had made representation for the drainage in the area to be improved since it was flood-prone.
Michael was the eldest of four children. Since he was the only boy, he was seen and treated as a prince by the rest of his family. He was a student at the Canje Secondary School and was going to start second form next month.
