After nursing her son back from the doorway of death, Princes Town mother Mohenee Rampersad was left heart-broken on Wednesday night when she learned of his death as she sat sewing a pillow case for his hospital bed.
Chaitram Rampersad, whose life was changed forever when he was run over by four cars in March outside Grand Bazaar, Valsayn, died at the San Fernando General Hospital around 8.45 pm on Wednesday.
No one was ever arrested or held in connection with the accident.
Rampersad, 31, whose plight was first highlighted in the T&T Guardian in October, was warded on November 11 at the San Fernando General Hospital for a chest infection.
As a result of the accident, Chaitram was paralysed from the neck down and could not walk, talk, eat or breathe on his own.
His mother said she visited him on Wednesday but left soon after as he was crying non-stop.
She said she found courage and hope after reading about the success of another accident victim, Ryan Rampersad, who was crippled after an accident in Sea Lots last year and can now walk again.
“I went to see him, normally I stay and spend time with him, massaging his body, talking to him but yesterday (Wednesday) he was crying from the time I got there to the time I left.
“I was in pain watching him like that and I stayed with him for some time but not as long as I usually stay.
“I was sewing his pillow case when I got a call around 8.45 pm telling me he had passed away. I didn’t think he would die, even after all the doctors told me about him,” Mohenee added.
In an interview yesterday at her home at St Julien Road, Princes Town, she clutched photos of Chaitram throughout the years and recalled the moment he saved her life.
She said: “He came home one day... he was about 18 and saw his father beating me. He held his father back from me and told me to run... that moment I made up my mind and I never put myself in that situation again.
“I don’t know what would have happened to me if he didn’t intervene, if he didn’t give me the courage to leave all those years ago.”
She lamented though that her son never got the assistance he really needed.
“We tried everything to get resources to hire two nurses to come home and take care of him. We went to the Ministry (of Health) a lot of times but we never got a response.”
Recalling the sacrifices she made to take care of her son after he was released from the Mt Hope Hospital in October, she urged parents to never give up on their children.
“To anyone out there who ever has to go through this with their child, please don’t give up on them. I believed in him and despite everything the doctors said since he got into the accident, he held on for so long and he was doing better,” she said.
An autopsy is expected to be done today to determine the cause of death.