Ryan returns home

A Sea Lots family received their very own Christmas miracle one day before the big day as Ryan Rampersad, a victim of the February 24 accident that claimed three lives and injured three people, returned home after ten months. Friends, neighbours and well-wishers visited the home of Rampersad’s grandmother Vero James, where Ryan would be staying until today. Rampersad waved at neighbours, calling some by name, as he moved his legs and arms, his eyes wide and mouth open.

Ryan has come a long way from being 98 per cent paralysed, with only the ability to move his eyes, in August. Back then, doctors had told the family nothing more could be done for him. When a T&T Guardian team visited, Rampersad’s mother Pearl James stood near the gate of the house, distributing gifts of toys to neighbourhood children. “Merry Christmas,” Rampersad said after saying acknowledging the Guardian team. 

Rampersad was brought home from the St James Medical Complex by his boss at his former job, Caribbean Crane Operators, at around 11 am on Christmas Eve. While at home, Rampersad will  be cared for by his grandmother Vero, who was trained by nurses to continue his physiotherapy and to administer his medication. “I feel very good. I visited him at the hospital every day and I am so glad that he is home,” Vero said.

Vero could not say whether or not Rampersad would be visited by his wife and two children. She said she would have to call to see if the children’s mother would bring them to visit him. Vero asked for anybody willing to assist or make donations to Rampersad to contact her, as she said some previous donations had not reached him. “I knew he would have been home,” Pearl, Rampersad’s mother, said. In a previous interview, Pearl, who said she prayed every day, said she had no doubt of her son’s recovery.

“This is just the beginning,” she said. “He will soon be able to walk into this house, instead of being wheeled in. He will be as healthy and as strong as before.” Asked how she was so certain of Rampersad’s full recovery, she responded with three words: “Faith in God.” Police Constable Sherwin Legere, a policeman for the past 15 years, is charged with three offences of causing death by dangerous driving to Haydee Paul and her daughters, Akasha, eight and Shakira, seven. 

The three were struck and killed while walking along a pavement on Beetham Highway, Port of Spain, on the morning of February 24.