A lament from north-east Tobago

That was when an army truck carrying 17 soldiers and six other people overturned at a sharp corner with almost everyone injured, some injuries bordering on life-threatening. There was mayhem.

In the absence of an ambulance, concerned residents ferried the injured to the local playing field. This location was used because the local health centre was locked shut as it is on most weekends. The situation was bleak with no provision for dealing with one emergency patient, far less 20.

This is despite the fact that more than $17 million had been spent for the building of a medical complex in Charlotteville just one year before (November 2011). It was said by Tobago Regional Health Authority CEO Paul Taylor “to contain the most modern equipment.” Health Secretary Claudia Groome-Duke said, inter alia, that “the new centre will provide, among other things, emergency medical services.” Neither the most modern equipment nor the emergency medical services have ever been seen and were not available to the victims of that accident.

The soldiers met a locked and under-resourced health centre instead.

Lady luck was on the side of the soldiers however. Holidaying in Charlotteville at the time was a woman surgeon from Germany.

She was informed of the event and quickly rushed to the playing field and took charge.

Shortly afterwards, two junior doctors from the UK appeared and joined the effort.

They had been staying nearby at Blue Waters Inn and just happened to be visiting Pirate’s Bay and heard of the catastrophe.

They were ably assisted by a junior nurse from the village who also rushed to assist.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of these four caring people at least one life was saved and the effects of most of the injuries was kept to a minimum. Other than that nurse, no local medical expertise was available, with a two-hour bumpy drive to Scarborough the only option if those doctors had not intervened.

Did anyone in authority care enough to ensure that we would not have to rely on Lady Luck next time around? Remarkably, almost exactly four years later, on the occurrence of the tragic accident in L’Anse Fourmi earlier this month, there is still no resident doctor or modern, well-equipped medical complex in the northeast.

It is not for a lack of resources. In that time we have built shopping malls that stand idle and bought Manta Lodge Hotel that gathers dust, part of a long list of dubious items of expenditure. Who really cares? Had there been a doctor and a wellequipped medical complex in Charlotteville or anywhere in the north-east on October 10, the doctor could have been at the site of the accident within half an hour.

Guidance about how to support people being moved from the bus could have minimised suffering, both short and long-term.

Medical treatment at the site could perhaps have saved a life as it surely did in Charlotteville.

We don’t know for sure but we should have given the victim the opportunity to find out.

Arrival at a well staffed and equipped medical complex in the north-east would have been achieved within one hour. Patients would have been immeasurably better off.

Who really cares? Instead, patients had to endure a bumpy ride of an hour and a half to Signal Hill. The patient who was comforting the deceased says that he drew his last breath at Calder Hall junction, more than an hour after leaving L’Anse Fourmi, and more than two hours after the accident. This is a scandal. More lives will be lost if we continue to operate with warped priorities and an absence of caring.

The Tobago House of Assembly will shortly be debating its 2017 Budget allocation. Will its decisions be guided by any care for the medical well being of residents and visitors to the north-east? Tobago will be paying close attention.

DAVID WALKER via email