School girl dies months after tragic accident

Sep 25, 2020 News

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– driver wants family to settle matter for $350,000

A student of the Diamond Secondary School, East Bank Demerara, died on Monday last, after a seven-month long-battle for survival from severe injuries she had sustained in a tragic accident along the Supply Public Road, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
The student, Akazea Austin, was struck down by a speeding car, on February 13, while attempting to cross the road, minutes after stepping out of a minibus.
According to media reports, the driver of the minibus had signaled the other drivers to stop for Austin to cross but the car driven by a Linden taxi driver failed to do so.
As a result of the injuries sustained from the accident, Austin suffered severe brain and lung damage. This resulted in her having a memory loss and a tracheostomy-a surgically created hole in her neck (wind pipe/trachea) to provide an alternative airway for breathing.
Doctors had told Austin’s mom, Loraina Waddle that her daughter’s brain was swollen. They also explained to the woman that a nerve between the skull and the brain was severely damaged. There were also huge blood clots in her lungs which did not allow Austin to breathe properly. Her hip was also shifted out of place and rendered her unable to move or walk.
Austin was left hospitalized at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for one month before she was discharged.
Waddle told Kaieteur News that despite her daughter being home, she remained bedridden for another four months before she made attempts to walk.
“She could not move, walk or even speak properly, I would be forced to read her lips to know if she needed anything or understand what she was saying,” said Waddle.
Nevertheless, she said that her daughter was determined to live and showed great signs of improvement during the end of August and this continued into September.
Waddle said, “She even started moving around with the help of a ‘walker’ that was donated to her”.
However, Waddle told Kaieteur News that Austin would cry and sometimes fall severely ill because of the damage to her lungs.
“We would take her to visit the doctors regularly but the damage in her lungs remained a problem, sometimes she would cry out for pain and even coughed up blood,” said Austin’s mom.
On Monday, September 23, while Waddle was on her way home from her work, she received a call from her elder daughter that she was forced to rush Austin to the hospital.
Waddle hurried home, picked up some cash, caught a taxi and made her way to GPHC but before she arrived, sometime after 16:00hrs that afternoon, Austin passed away.
Kaieteur News was told that after Austin took ill and complained of not being able to breathe, her siblings rushed her to the Diamond Diagnostic Center but the health personnel there told them that the doctor was not in.
Moreover, the siblings said, they were advised by the said personnel to take her to the GPHC because there were more patients in front of them.
It was while receiving treatment at GPHC that Austin died.
Meanwhile, the taxi driver, who is now responsible for Austin’s death is currently out on a $100,000 bail and wants the family to settle the matter for $350,000.
Waddle explained had that the taxi driver, identified as Glen McBean, had assisted her with $95,000 for a Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan.
Just before his first court appearance, she said, the taxi driver along with his lawyer approached her to sign an agreement to settle the matter for a particular sum.
Despite Waddle being short of cash and unable to afford a lawyer at the time, she refused to sign the agreement and told the man that she had spent triple times that amount on her daughter’s medical bills.
Waddle said she told him that she does not want money but justice for her daughter’s condition.
During the first court hearing, the magistrate had requested that Waddle present all of Austin’s medicals for the second court date, which was scheduled for September 14.
Waddle said it was also requested that a statement be taken from Austin by the police who investigated the matter. Waddle had explained that her daughter had suffered a memory loss and it was not possible for her to give an accurate statement, however, the magistrate said that it was necessary.
The magistrate explained, said Waddle, that it does not matter if the statement is fully detailed or accurate and will instruct that the rank to take the statement.
Sometime later, the woman said she visited Madewini Police Station and asked the said officer to accompany to her house to take the statement but the rank replied that he had not yet been given the court order to take the statement.
On a subsequent visit to the police station, the rank promised to visit the woman’s home but never showed up.
The taxi driver made his second court appearance and Austin’s statement was still not presented to the court.
In preparation for the next court hearing, which is to be held on October 14, Waddle managed to get Austin to write down a few words based on what she remembered minutes before the accident.
However, she was advised by her lawyer to take Austin to the police station and have the rank take the statement. Unfortunately, Austin passed away before Waddle was able to do this.
Waddle is now afraid that without her daughter’s statement, she will have a weak case against the taxi driver.

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