Landslide victim loses battle for life

TOBAGO was plunged into mourning following word that mother of five Shirley Ferguson, who was critically injured in the November landslides in East Tobago, lost her three-month-long battle for life yesterday at Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Ferguson’s death brings to three the number of persons killed in the landslides and follows that of her 16-year-old daughter Kathy-Ann, and 30-year-old Keston McMillan, who both died instantly after being covered by mud, stones and debris in the landslides. Dazed relatives told Newsday while they knew Ferguson, 43, was in a serious condition, her death was still a shock to them. Efforts are now being made to have the body flown back to the sister-isle for a funeral service.

The Ferguson family members were buried under mud when the house in which the sought shelter from the landslides collapsed under the weight of a wall of mud. The landslides affected areas mainly in the East of Tobago including Delaford, Speyside, Goodwood and Charlotteville. Shirley and her children Kathy-Ann; Kale-Ann, 23; Kershon, 17; Kurlon, 11 and Kwesi Ann, eight, were rescued from the house and airlifted out of the area which was inaccessible by vehicle. Both Shirley and her daughter Kwesi-Ann were flown to Trinidad for emergency treatment, as they were the most critically injured. The other children were treated at Scarborough General Hospital and subsequently discharged.

Kwesi-Ann was warded at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) (Children’s Hospital) before being discharged. She is still in Trinidad since she has to visit the hospital weekly for dressing and therapy. Shirley’s left leg was amputated and doctors were planning to remove her other leg in an effort to save her life. When Newsday spoke to Kale-Ann yesterday, she was still trying to come to terms with her mother’s passing. “I knew that she was really bad but this still comes as a shock. The past few days she was feeling a lot of pain and had developed bedsores. I am still trying to take it all in but I guess God knows best,” she said. A distraught Gustavus “Dakky” Ferguson, husband of the deceased, said the funeral date had not been decided, but said Tuesday was the tentative date.