Feverish efforts to save man’s life

A young woman who tried to save the life of a man who subsequently died in the parking lot of Massy Stores in Warrens on Thursday is still in shock after witnessing him take his last breath.

Twenty-three-year-old Brittany Brewster said it was sometime after 10:30 a.m. when she disembarked a bus at the southern end of the car park and noticed a minor car accident.

The Barbados TODAY employee who was on her way to work nearby said she decided to approach the two cars to take a closer look after seeing no one outside either vehicle. It was then she noticed a man in one vehicle.

“The windows were dark but something just felt off to me so I walked closer and realised that the gentleman had his head back on the seat. I knocked on the window and I didn’t get a response. I pulled the car door and was just asking him if he was okay and if he could hear me. But I didn’t get any response,” she recalled, adding that the man was gasping for air.

Brewster said she used her mobile phone to call 911 but was told there was no ambulance available at the time.

Noting that she could not perform CPR, the young woman said she was advised by the person who answered the 911 call to find someone close by who was capable of rendering medical assistance.

After asking a lady who was passing to stay with the gentleman, Brewster said she rushed to a doctor’s office upstairs Massy where she explained that a medical emergency was taking place in the car park.

“A lady who was there came down with me. She was feeling for a pulse and saying he isn’t breathing and she started CPR. And for a good while that was going on and I was still on the phone with the lady from the hospital who was trying to give me some kind of guidance.

“Then a guy came from upstairs at the same clinic, and he was the actual doctor and they were doing the chest compressions. During that time, the lady from the hospital was asking me to try to find his identification card or see if he had any medication,” she added.

Brewster said judging from the identification, the man appeared to be Russian and was born in the late 1950s.

Acknowledging that she has never experienced such a traumatic ordeal in her life, Brewster said the medically-trained personnel who rushed to help did their all to save the man’s life.

“I remember a lady who was doing the chest compression after a while tapping him on his shoulder and saying ‘we tried our best’. I just keep replaying that in my mind. I don’t know him in any way, but I am sad because he is somebody’s family member,” she said.

An ambulance eventually arrived at the scene.

A visibly distraught woman, believed to be the wife of the deceased, was comforted by Massy officials and police officers.

Police Public Relations Officer Inspector Rodney Inniss said it was unclear whether the deceased had a medical problem prior to the collision with the other vehicle or his death resulted from injuries sustained in the collision. The matter is being investigated.
(AH)