Man falls into gully after epileptic attack, rescued by car washer
A man who reportedly suffered an epileptic attack and fell into a gully on Half-Way-Tree Road was rescued yesterday by another man just as water from heavy rainfall started rushing through the drain.
Noel Virgo told the Jamaica Observer that he jumped into the gully and pulled the man from the water to the side of the drain after being alerted to the misfortune by two women.
Virgo, who said he washes motor vehicles in Tangerine Place — a cul-de-sac populated by mostly medical and dental offices, as well as Medical Associates Hospital — explained that the women shouted to him that someone had fallen into the gully and urged him to help.
“So mi go roun’ deh and see him, an’ mi jump down and haul him outta di water and tek off him shoes an put pan him nose,” Virgo related. “When mi look pan certain things mi seh mi have bredda, a coulda one a my bredda, so mi jus do weh mi fi do. The water come down hard all over him. The water was heavy, heavy.”
Asked if he had any concerns about his own safety, Virgo said, “Yea, mi coulda wash weh, but a jus’ so it go. I was thinking about myself, but mi si say it nah go hurt mi, so mi jus’ go in there an’ tek him outta the water.”
One of the women who alerted Virgo, and who gave her name only as Sanita, said she and a co-worker saw the man, whose name the Observer was unable to ascertain, in the gully and grew concerned because they thought he was dead, as he was not moving.
“We were thinking of calling the police, but we called out to him and he woke up. We asked him what he’s doing in the gully and he said he had epilepsy and we told him to get out before the water come down and wash him away,” she told the Observer.
Obviously still shaken by the experience, Sanita said that while she was talking to the man he got another attack, fell and hit his head. “I saw blood. That’s when I called for help,” she said, adding that she saw some security guards, alerted them, and they called the police.
Police and firefighters responded to the call, lifted the man from the gully and transported him to hospital.
