Explosion leaves two-year-old and uncle hospitalised

Jun 04, 2013 News

Two-year-old Prity Mohamed lies in evident pain in the Burn Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. Her face is blackened and sections of her body are scorched. It appears that she has at least second degree injuries, the result of an explosion reportedly caused by her 20-year-old uncle, Kishan Ramdat.

A distraught Shelly Ramdat (inset) and family members at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Her mother, Shelly Ramdat, Kishan’s sister, was seen standing at her bedside yesterday attending to her as nurses frequently rendered their expert support. This however, does not ease the pain the toddler endures with every move nor does it reduce the distress which she is too young to yet understand.
But the young child, according to indications from medical personnel, stands a chance of survival and of leading a normal life. However, this does not take away from the fact that an innocent child has been reduced to a fraction of her usual animated self because of the actions of her uncle who was reportedly drunk and smoking.
He, on the other hand, has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital in a more critical condition. He was required to undergo a CT Scan at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Sunday night, according to his father, Samaroo Ramdat.
Yesterday, Ramdat said that he has not been given any further information from the private hospital. He was told to return as soon as possible with $33,000, the cost of the scan. He said he would be grateful if persons could contact him on 681-7333 to render support.
The man disclosed that his son was admitted in an unconscious state and up to yesterday remained the same way. “They push a tube down he throat and he deh pun some life machine.”
He related that both he and his son are fishermen who have been working on his brother’s engine boat for several years. And it was attempts by a drunken Kishan, to discard a cigarette butt that caused the explosion.
The senior Ramdat explained that his son who was earlier drinking had returned to their two-bedroom River View Squatting area, Mosquito Hall, East Coast Demerara, home when tragedy struck. He said that his son, while standing on the platform of the stairways, tossed the cigarette butt away. It landed on a container of gasoline which exploded. The blast damaged a section of the house as well.
At the time, little Prity who had ventured from her parents home, a few meters away, was also on the platform. She was caught in the fiery blast.
It was a difficult task getting the two to the hospital, according to the child’s mother who was at the time doing chores when she heard the explosion and suddenly saw fire coming from her father’s home.
This was soon followed by screams from her daughter. “All me hear was she start hollering and when me reach me see she in she pink panty and she skin pink and peeling.”
The woman recounted that it was a difficult task to get a vehicle to take her daughter to the hospital. However, a man eventually volunteered to carry them to the hospital. Another vehicle took her brother to the hospital too.
Yesterday family members converged at the hospital to get a glimpse of the injured.