Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan says the victims of the February 24 Sea Lots accident need a lawyer to take up the fight so they can be compensated by the driver's insurance company.In a telephone interview yesterday, Khan said people with insurance had a responsibility for victims whom they struck, and should be made to compensate families."We are doing what we can, but it cannot be all about the Government," Khan said."Lawyers tend to run after condemned prisoners, why can't they pick up the fight for these people?"In an interview yesterday morning, the corporate secretary of insurance company Tatil, Ronald Liafang, agreed that insurance companies could cover medical costs for accident victims."One has to establish that the driver was responsible for the accident," he explained.
He said if the driver was proven liable then the company the car was insured with could compensate victims.One of the six victims, Abigail Assing, was treated for ruptured intestines and abdominal muscles, a broken hip bone, two broken fingers and a hole in her side before being released from the Port-of-Spain General Hospital a week and two days later.Assing, who also spoke in an interview yesterday, said she sometimes experienced unbearable pain when rain fell, and felt alarmed and panic whenever she heard the sound of car brakes screeching.Psychologist Varma Deyalsingh said this could be a sign of post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress disorder."The sound of the car screeching was the last thing I remember hearing before the accident," Assing said.She undergoes physical therapy at the hospital twice a week.
The other surviving victims, Amanda Lalla, 50, and 20-year-old Ryan Rampersad, remain warded at Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Lalla's daughter Devika said her mother was doing well and although she was still awaiting surgery, more than three months after the accident, she sometimes went home on weekends."Her left hand is broken and she is waiting to do surgery on her foot," Devika said.Rampersad's mother Pearl James said when she visited her son yesterday morning he appeared cleaner than the day before."The care he was receiving seems to have improved today," James said."I thought I was getting a scent from him but when I asked the nurse she said she didn't know where it was coming from."She said her son had oozing bedsores and a cold.James and Rampersad's wife Sally Ann said they had engaged a lawyer but had been unable to meet with him.
Responding to questions, Khan said the Health Ministry was doing all it could for Rampersad, who is 98 per cent paralysed as a result of the accident.Rampersad, who was the sole breadwinner for his wife Sally Ann and their two children, was reportedly discharged this week, but Khan's intervention allowed him to remain at the hospital."People who are paralysed are totally helpless and we are trying to make sure there is a nurse around to look after him 24 hours a day," Khan said.Asked if this would be a problem, considering complaints of a shortage of nurses in hospitals, Khan said there was no "actual shortage" of nurses.
NWRHA said:In response to questions from the T&T Guardian, chairman of the North West Regional Health Authority Eddison Haqq said the hospital's responsibility was to ensure that the patient received the appropriate care for his medical condition.
"Given the nature of the patient's injuries, he has been supported by an external airway stomach tube for feeding."Rampersad has been placed on a special mattress to prevent bedsores and has received intensive nursing care.Haqq said complaints from relatives were being investigated.He said both the equipment and manpower were available to respond to Rampersad's needs.
Victim's wife speaks
After reports of offers to assist Rampersad's family, his wife Sally Ann said she had received several phone calls from concerned members of the public.
However, she said no one had visited or given any actual assistance to her and her family up to yesterday.
