AN elderly woman who a local service club invited out yesterday for a fun-filled day of music, food and dancing in celebration of Senior Citizens’ Week collapsed on the lawns of King’s House and died before being taken to hospital.

Enid King, president of the Linstead Senior Citizens’ Club, St Catherine, was pronounced dead at the nearby Andrews Memorial Hospital about 45 minutes after she fell ill.

But yesterday, a number of seniors in attendance at the annual Kiwanis Club of North St Andrew-sponsored treat were angry. They told the Observer that King might have lived had motorists in the audience responded quickly to repeated requests for a vehicle to take her to hospital.

“A dem invite we here, and dem hear the announcement that we want a car to take her to the hospital and dem don’t respond…” one senior said. A number of other elderly persons attending the function expressed similar views.

One senior citizen from Linstead, who did not wish to be named, said King had complained of feeling ‘sick’ as they sat together enjoying the music and dancing.

“As a hold her so, she just drop and did not talk again,” the woman recalled.

More than 1,500 senior citizens drawn from Golden Age homes and senior citizens’ clubs in St Mary, St Catherine, St Thomas and Kingston and St Andrew were invited to the annual treat in Kingston to celebrate the week, which began with a national church service on Sunday.

The senior citizens, some in wheelchairs, others with canes, were being entertained by the police band, when a uniformed St John’s Ambulance Brigade volunteer – who did not give her name – requested that the chairman make an announcement for a car to transport a senior, who had collapsed, to hospital. The announcement was made twice.

In the meantime, a crowd had gathered around King. But although a number of cars were parked nearby, no one volunteered to take the sick woman to the nearby Andrews Hospital.

A woman, said to be a student doctor and a Kiwanis Club member, was later seen attending to King.

“When I saw the lady with her trumpet, and she said she was a doctor, I leave everything to her, but by then the lady eyes turned glossy and her pulse was not responding. She appeared dead to me,” said the volunteer from St John’s Ambulance.

“It took them 45 minutes after I ask the announcer to make the appeal before the car came. By then, she was already dead,” she added.

Asked for a comment, Kiwanis president Sam Reid said only that King was taken to hospital.

Yesterday, project co-ordinator Ossie Simpson said the treat was put on at a cost of $300,000 and priority was given to children and senior citizens, particularly those from inner-city communities.

Three wheelchairs donated by Food For the Poor were also presented to the National Council for Senior Citizens.