Police at Bartica have detained a miner who cut open the stomach of a fellow miner following a drunken brawl at Takutu backdam last week.
A badly wounded Ray James was rushed to the Bartica Hospital on Thursday last with “his stomach hanging out”, according to reports. He was later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital on Friday where he underwent emergency surgery.
James condition was listed as stable and yesterday relatives said he was “doing better” but was crying out for pain.
Helen Roberts, his reputed wife, told Stabroek News that police detained a miner known as ‘Bukta man’ over the incident which happened on Wednesday. She said the assailant and her husband work together in the same area and had been drinking when “something went wrong.
“I wasn’t there but people tell me how they quarrel up when them drink and then Ray when back to the camp and he [the suspect] wait till he sleeping to attack.”
The man reportedly crept up on James and cut open his stomach with a sharp object before fleeing the camp. Persons at the camp rushed to assist the injured man, but felt helpless because of his condition. He was then transported to the Bartica Hospital.
Roberts was on her way to visit James from her home at Mora Camp when she received word that her husband had been wounded and was at Bartica. The woman told this newspaper that she was heading to the camp to take in supplies.
Roberts travelled to Bartica only to be told that James was on his way to the city. She then joined a boat and turned up at the hospital around 3 pm on Friday. Doctors at the public hospital informed her that James was in surgery.
“I [was] waiting to see he and I [was] praying that he okay because I hear how he get cut bad. People tell me de man cut out he belly and that everything was just hanging out,” Roberts said.
