Escaped prisoner returns to hospital

A day after he escaped from the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), alleged goat thief Rawle Braithwaite returned to the institution and surrendered himself.

Braithwaite is currently admitted under police guard in the Accident & Emergency Unit of the GPH, where he is receiving medical attention.

Braithwaite escaped on Saturday by jumping from through a second-storey window of the Male Surgical Ward to the hospital grounds and then fleeing the compound.

A source told Stabroek News that Braithwaite was forced to return to the hospital because he escaped with a colostomy bag attached to his body. The colostomy bag collected all waste products produced by his body. The source noted that if Braithwaite had tried to remove the bag on his own, it would have proved risky to his health, with an infection being a likelihood. Given the circumstances, the man surrendered himself to the hospital.

Braithwaite was initially admitted at the hospital after he was shot to his buttocks on September 9 during an altercation with the police.

The police, in a statement, said they responded to a report of the suspected larceny of goats. On arrival, at the Helena Number 2 Public Road, at Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, they said three men and a woman were seen in a vehicle with two goats. The men and the woman made efforts to escape and were pursued by the police, during which one of the men, said to be Braithwaite, allegedly attacked a rank with a pair of scissors and was shot to his buttocks.