kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Life for gunshot victim Candy Loubon has drastically changed.
Although she has been released from the Paediatric Ward of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital, two-year-old Candy, continues to live with the pain of two metal pellets lodged in her left leg and neck, near her spine.
Her neighbour Claude Mike is currently before the Princes Town Magistrates Court charged with a series of criminal offences which caused the tragedy.
Candy’s mother, Cassie Fonrose, said she and her husband Jamie Loubon declined to sign a form to give surgeon’s permission to remove the pellets. Fonrose said the doctors gave the surgery a 50/50 chance of success with the alternative outcome being paralysis for the toddler.
Candy was allowed to go home but with a schedule for regular visits to the clinic to ensure that no infections develop. She is expected to return to the hospital next month for a scan to determine whether she can undergo surgery.
“It looks like if the pellets are raising up and the doctor feels so too. God works miracles. God is a working miracle for her. She is moving about, walking and talking but I just don’t know what will happen to her,” Cassie said.
Candy’s shooting was just the second tragedy she suffered for the year. In September, Candy suffered a broken leg, the same one which she was shot on when a T&T Regiment SUV crashed into the family car. Jamie, a mason and home builder, was the breadwinner of the family. But Jamie’s arm had to be amputated, leaving him disabled.
“We want to know who is helping us now. The Government gave us a public assistance grant of $1,700 for the whole month. The school fee for one of my children is $300 month and I have three. Candy is supposed to start school in January. There is no free private school here.”
Since the accident, she said her family was never offered compensation by the State.
