Sunday, March 31, 2024 was meant to be a day of enjoyment at a river in Ocho Rios for Kemar Wallace and his friends, but fun turned into tragedy when a diving accident possibly changed the trajectory of the 15-year-old’s life.

Antonette Wilson was miles away in St Catherine when she heard the devastating news that her son was transported to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital, unable to move his body or speak.

“Me almost blackout. Me shock, me nah expect fi hear that,” the single mother of three boys told Observer Online.

Wilson said, by the time her son got to the hospital he could speak and, when she arrived afterwards at the medical facility, he told her the circumstances that led to the accident.

“They have a swing over the river where you go on it and swing and dive in the water, so him go on that and swing. I wasn’t there but what him tell me and what other persons who were on the trip say, when him swing and dive him go down head way because him turn him body from up in the air and lick him head in the river bed,” she explained.

“So when him lick him head him float up and was unresponsive; couldn’t talk, couldn’t move but him say him could hear sounds, and him could see what a take place. So one of the friends that him always go swimming with every weekend, think him just float up as a joke, because Kemar love run joke, so him go over and start box him and a say ‘Kemar how you love play so?’ and then him realise say Kemar nah respond and how him look in him face, him call over help and them rush him to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital,” Wilson continued.

Doctors at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital discovered that Kemar had broken two bones in his neck. He received treatment and some days later was transported to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in Kingston where he was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

More devastating news followed as doctors found that the accident had impacted the blood flow to Kemar’s organs as his heart rate and blood pressure were unstable.

“In his test at UHWI, you not seeing the vein so no blood nah go to him organs. They have to find a main vein in his neck to his shoulder where they are getting the blood and put him on a different treatment than what the St Ann’s Bay Hospital gave him, so they get him blood pressure and him heart rate on a level to do the surgery because those are low,” Wilson said.

She said Kemar, who is a student at the Old Harbour High School,  was supposed to have undergone surgery last Friday (May 3) but he suffered three seizures in the days prior which had caused him to stop breathing on his own. The seizures were brought on by headaches and fever which tests revealed were caused by an infection in his blood. The doctors began antibiotic treatment and had to put the teen into a medically induced coma.

Wilson said that prior to last week’s decline in his health, Kemar’s infectious personality would light up the ward as he would make the nurses laugh and even made her feel better when she would visit him. But now that he is in a coma, she is finding it difficult to cope.

“Him love dance, him love laugh. Me can’t explain how me feel, but him not responding now is taking a toll because when me go to the hospital him keep me up. Because him brain a work normal, him can tell you everything, every treatment weh them give, every name of the medication dem, him love use some big words. When we go him give we joke and make we laugh, so me might leave me house feeling sad but when me go and talk to him we laugh together, him feed off of my energy and me feed off his.

“But the sad part come like when me walk out to go back home because him a the one who always deh at home with me. When the other two boys are at dem father, him always deh where I am at,” she said, her voice filled with emotion.

Wilson is anxious for her son to undergo surgery and return home soon. She expressed optimism as she noted that Kemar has defied the odds, revealing that doctors were astonished at the fact that he was breathing on his own following the accident. She also disclosed that he had started moving his hands and was feeling sensations in his feet as a result of daily therapy.

Due to the high cost associated with the treatment and the pins and screws and other implements needed to fix Kemar’s bones and save his organs, a GoFundMe account was launched by Kemar’s family in a bid to raise 10,000 euros (J$1.68 million) to offset expenses.

“The amount is to basically cover the bill overall but me nuh think it will cover everything because we don’t know how long him ago stay in the ICU which costs $75,000 per day, different from the medication that them give him, plus the MRI tests and other tests and the surgery fee, plus medication that I purchase,” she said.

So far 831 euros have been raised, far short of the set goal. Those wishing to assist in getting Kemar the assistance he needs can donate at https://gofund.me/bec1005e.