‘Can’t believe I’m still alive’

“I can’t believe I’m still alive!” were the words expressed by teary-eyed Angela Jones who lay stunned in her hospital bed at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital following an accident on Saturday night, November 12.

Jones said that she was encouraged by friends to attend the New Democratic Party’s political meeting in Richland Park and had no idea that misfortune would strike.{{more}}

She said that during the return journey she was asleep in the van “Dovie”, licence No. 226, and was seated between two other passengers in the third row when she was suddenly awakened by a collision. The mother of two said the next thing she knew, she was heading over the bank and being tumbled like a rag doll.

Jones confessed that screams were everywhere but she was so stunned she could not utter a word. The Guyanese-born woman said with the assistance of New Democratic Party, NDP, supporters, she crawled out through the front wind-screen. She admitted that she however became hysterical when she sat down and realised the seriousness of the accident.

The Green Hill resident said she tried to get up but couldn’t and two guys lifted her to a vehicle; she was then taken to the hospital. She said she was later discharged after some X-rays, but the next day while preparing Sunday lunch for her sons, she felt intense pain in her hips and legs.

She explained, “I got up about 10 a.m. but by 12 p.m. it became difficult to stand. I was getting cold sweat and felt like I was going to faint. So I lied down until 7 p.m. but when I tried to get up I felt stiff. I couldn’t move my waist, I couldn’t stoop to use the toilet.”

The accident victim said when her family tried to take her to the hospital the pain from just touching her legs was so intense she began to scream at the top of her lungs. She was x-rayed and given medication to ease the pain and told that it might be muscle spasms or a minor fracture of the hip.

On the hospital bed where our Searchlight reporter conducted the interview, Jones admitted that despite her pain she was grateful to be alive so that her 21 and 11-year-old sons would not be motherless.