Sisters Village man dies after being chopped in head

Suraj Jailall
Suraj Jailall

A cane harvester succumbed at a city hospital on Monday afternoon, just over a day after he was chopped in the head following a row at Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara.

Dead is Suraj Jailall, 29, called “Nishal,” a resident of Lot 34 Sisters Village, Sideline Dam.

Jailall sustained a wound to his face, which resulted in a section of his ear being severed, around 1 am on Sunday. He was subsequently taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) before being transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he succumbed around 3.30 pm on Monday.

The suspect, who is known to Jailall, is presently in police custody. He was reportedly arrested on Monday evening after Jailall’s death.

Savitri Barran, the dead man’s sister, yesterday told Stabroek News that she understands that her brother and the suspect were drinking at a shop in the community and an argument started.

“They started to argue and come out and exchange word and he (Jailall) pick up a stick and he (the suspect) go home for cutlass….but he (Jailall) didn’t do nothing, he drop the stick and was sitting down when he (the suspect) come from behind and just chop he,” Barran explained.

Barran stated that it remains unclear what might have caused the argument. However, she said that persons would usually gamble and drink at the shop where the attack occurred. “Dah corner deh always got problem. Just the other day somebody get chop up and I had to call the police. Nobody nah do nothing about it. Now look wah happen. Me brother dead,” she lamented.

Barran added that after Jailall was chopped, he walked home and called out for his mother.

Barran, who lives next door, said she heard and came out of her house. “He (Jailall) walk and my father come out and seh go to the station and mek a report. And they didn’t take any report, they gave him a doctor paper and seh go to the doctor, leh the doctor look yuh and then he go come back there,’” she recalled.

She said Jailall went to the WRDH, where he received stitches to the injury he sustained and was admitted at the said institution.

He was transferred to the GPH on Monday morning and underwent a CT-scan, after which the family learnt that he sustained a fractured skull. 

Barran said if only the hospital was not negligent and her brother was subject to a scan earlier, his life could have been saved.

 “10 o’ clock (Sunday) they (WDRH) call we and they tell we come emergency, quick. So we fly the road down. About twenty minutes we take. When we go there, we had to wait like two hour. They didn’t had driver fah ambulance, they didn’t had oxygen. We had to wait. They had to call Georgetown fah ambulance, they had to call Diamond (hospital) all sort ah thing,” Barran said.

“They know wah happen to this bai (Jailall). When we go Sunday, they say this boy, everything is okay. He is good. This bai is okay. Nothing. Why they didn’t tell us from the beginning this bai had a fracture skull? We coulda see what we coulda do… you wait ’til he gone right down, drain him and then take him there (GPH),” she added.