Doctors marvel at ’Ole George

After walking for seven days without sleep at the Emancipation Park in New Kingston Jamaica, Earl “Ole George” Daniel has been described by Jamaican medical practitioner Dr Carolin Thomas-Boyd as “medical marvel”.

Dr Boyd who was one of doctors attending to “Ole George” during his endurance feat admitted in an exclusive interview with the Searchlight Newspaper that medical journals indicate that a human being could only stay awake for a maximum of 10 days without sleep, but Ole George was able to stay awake for the entire week “with full extreme activity”.{{more}}

He began walking Tuesday, September 19 at 5:37 pm and finished a week later on the September 26 at 5:37 pm.

She noted that Ole George’s accomplishment could make medical researchers rewrite the books.

Dr Boyd said that after 10 days an individual gets very disoriented and could collapse from exhaustion but Ole George was always alert and had strong vital signs, was never too tired, and didn’t get dehydrated.

“Besides some blisters on his feet and chaffing between his legs, Ole George was healthy and his vital signs were consistent. He started off by weighing 190 lbs and ended up weighing 183 lbs, but this was because he did more drinking than eating along with his rigorous activity,” she said.

Dr Boyd revealed that despite rumors, Ole George never used drugs to stay awake but instead replenished with drinks such as Lucozade and Gatorade so that he wouldn’t get dehydrated and had one meal a day which consisted of pasta and fish.

The medical practitioner said that during that last few days she included pizza into his diet to increase his calorie intake because there was a point where he got a little disoriented.

She however believes that besides being in great shape, Ole George was able to conquer the road because of his very good attitude and jokingly advised the long distance walker to do nothing else right now but to catch up on some sleep.

Ole George believes that it is time that the Guinness World Records is challenged in the way they collect and choose their data.

He admitted that he was crushed by their decision last year not to include his six-day walk because there was no category and they did not have time to assess this new area.

“We can motivate people to produce. If we have the right thought process and inject our psyche with a new programming we can be champions at cricket, football or any other venture we set out to do. Too often our children’s confidence and creativity is crushed by adults who do not believe in them,” he told SEARCHLIGHT in a telephone interview from Jamaica.

Asked about whether his walk was a strategy to get popular so that he could run for politics, Ole George replied: “This is just the first phase of my goal to get Caribbean people to link as one. I have gotten their attention, my plan is to give back to humanity and this is not just the job of politicians, but sometimes I think we give them too much credit.”

The event which included Joel Butcher who dropped out due to a sprain was funded by National Lotteries Authority, the HIV AIDS Unit and People’s Pharmacy.