LUCKY ESCAPE

Having dodged serious injury on Monday, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has been placed on total bed rest following his discharge from hospital on Tuesday.

Dr Gonsalves spent a night at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Kingstown following a motor vehicular accident on Monday at around 3:45 p.m. in Peruvian Vale.{{more}}

A statement from the Prime Minister’s office issued by his Press Secretary, Hans King quotes Minister of Health, Dr Douglas Slater as saying that a team of medical doctors, after re-evaluating Dr Gonsalves this morning, decided that he was well enough to be discharged. They however ordered that he be placed on bed rest.



Eloise Gonsalves, wife of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, sitting outside the Accident and Emergency Unit of Milton Cato Hospital while her husband was attended to.

Dr Gonsalves dodged serious injury in the accident, which saw his official vehicle being written off after a collision between the sports utility vehicle (SUV) and a truck, which was being used to transport bananas.

The truck, on its way from Kingstown, crashed into the right side of the Prime Minister’s SUV. The Prime Minister was sitting at the back left hand side of the vehicle.



Dr Gonsalves’ driver, Sergeant Zaccheus Parris suffered fractures in his neck and shoulder areas and was recovering well at press time. He was also discharged from hospital on Tuesday.

Dr Gonsalves sustained injuries to his mouth, for which he received several stitches to his upper and lower lips and dental work for two displaced teeth.

The other person in the vehicle was the Prime Minister’s chief security officer. He was sitting in the front passenger seat and escaped unscathed.

Several Government Ministers and the Commissioner of Police were among the first persons to join the Prime Minister’s wife, Eloise Gonsalves and his children at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital where he was being treated.

The government’s public relations machinery had to be put into high gear on Monday as rumours quickly spread of serious injury to the Prime Minister and even that he had sustained a heart attack.