Good Samaritans fail to save GDF officer’s life

Dec 21, 2008 News

By Sharmain Cornette

Cornel Pitt and his girlfriend Jean December

What should have been a quiet outing with her boyfriend on Friday evening turned out to be a Good Samaritan Mission for 24-year-old Jean December, of 100 Leopold Street, Georgetown.
In fact, the mission saw her being instrumental in rushing a dying Senior Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coast Guard Officer, Lalta Narine, to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). But despite all of the efforts engaged to save his life, Narine was pronounced dead at the hospital just after 19:00 hours on Friday.
Earlier in the day, the Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander was an active participant at the Soldiers’ Day activities at Camp Ayanganna.
Recounting the entire scenario to this newspaper yesterday, December said that she and her boyfriend, Cornel Pitt, were heading to Mocha, East Bank Demerara, in her boyfriend’s car when, in the vicinity of Houston, she saw a car parked in the middle of the road. “We passed the car…this car was exactly in the middle of the road in front of the lotto shop. I look and I saw this man tilt over to one side in the car. So I was thinking like the person get shoot or something.”
But instead of passing and minding her own business, like the several other motorists on the thoroughfare, December said that her curiosity got the better of her.

Paul Collymore

“I said, ‘Boy, turn back leh we see if everything all right’…because nobody was stopping…,” she disclosed.
According to her, it took her boyfriend a while to turn his car around.
By the time they returned to the parked car, two other individuals, Paul Collymore of 619 East Ruimveldt, Georgetown, and his friend Andrea Lewis, of North Ruimveldt, were also rendering assistance.
According to Collymore, he was heading to Eccles, East Bank Demerara on his motorcycle with his friend as his pillion rider. The two, according to Collymore, decided to stop at the lotto shop to purchase a drink when they, too, observed the car parked in the middle of the road.
“It was just kind of curious because, just the left trafficator was on and the car was just sitting there.”
Collymore said that it was near impossible to see if anybody was in the car. He said that after closer inspection, it was discovered that the driver of the car was slumped over to the passenger side although he had on his seatbelt.
Collymore said that, while at the shop, a taxi driver had expressed concern about the car being parked in the road, but left the scene without inquiring further.
“He didn’t go to the car or anything, probably because he was scared or something because of what is happening these days…When we approached the car, the guy was panting for breath…and then my friend tried to loosen the seat belt.” It was shortly after this, Collymore said, that a car pulled up at the scene, from which December disembarked.
“She seemed to have some idea of what to do, so we stepped back and let her take over,” Collymore said.
December said that as soon as she got a closer look at the car, she immediately recognised that something was definitely wrong, which prompted her to tell her boyfriend to put on his hazard lights.
The woman said that she rushed over to the car and opened the driver’s side door, only to be greeted by a man who was desperately gasping for air.
December, a Government Technical Institute student, said that she immediately released the man’s seat belt and attempted to pull him upright, even breaking her nails in the process. She said that she also observed that the man’s car was in drive but had probably stopped since his feet were no longer on the accelerator, suggesting that the car might have been there for a while.
According to her, it became obvious that the man, whom they later learnt was an army officer, required immediate medical attention.
As a result, the group decided to place the man in the back of his (Narine) car, which Collymore opted to drive to the hospital. However, before rushing off to the hospital, they secured the officer’s belongings, including his laptop and other important articles, in his car trunk.
With December in the front passenger seat and the officer barely clinging to life at the back, Collymore attempted to blaze a trail to the hospital, with December’s boyfriend following in his car. Lewis had remained behind with Collymore’s motorcycle.
But, according to December, the blinking of the hazard lights and the honking of the cars’ horns served no purpose in trying to get other motorists out of the way.
As a result, December said, she was forced to push her head out of the window just to alert motorists that there was an emergency.
After a while, the woman said, she dashed over to the back seat to check on the officer, whose condition appeared to have been deteriorating by the second.
December recounted that it was in the vicinity of Camp and North Road that she observed that the man had stopped breathing.
“I jump over to the back seat and I start doing CPR on him, but by the time we reach to the hospital, he already got blue…And by the time we rushed him out at the hospital, it seemed he had gone…”
According to reports from the hospital, the officer died of a heart attack. In tending to the man, hospital officials discovered that his top pockets contained his heart medicine, but, for some reason, he was unable to administer same to himself.
Although satisfied that everything possible was done, December pondered on whether the officer’s life could have been saved if someone else had rendered assistance sooner.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Collymore.
“Despite of our efforts he still was not able to live. I don’t know how long he was on the road, but if someone maybe had just tried to help, he probably could have been alive today,” Collymore speculated.
Narine’s belongings were handed over to officers stationed at the hospital, who were able to contact the GDF and his (Narine’s) relatives, informing them of his demise.