A general surgeon stationed at the Mandeville Regional Hospital spent over 24 hours non-stop chopping his way across two parishes in an attempt to get to his wife and children in Westmoreland.

Jamaica Observer reporters first interacted with Dr Joel Sugrim last Wednesday morning after his car got trapped in mud in the middle of Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth, but by that time he had already gone through several other trials.

“I am trying to get to my family in Westmoreland, my wife and my kids. I couldn’t hear from them, the service was down and also we live in a flood-prone area. I haven’t made contact with them and I am worried. So I decided after my on-call duty after the storm to start my journey,” Sugrim told the Observer Thursday afternoon.

He said his journey began last Wednesday at 5:00 am in Mandeville, Manchester, and was peppered with what he described as hiccups.

The surgeon was forced to wield his cutlass in place of a scalpel, having to cut up light posts and trees scattered across Spur Tree to cross into St Elizabeth, and then, “Trying to be the first person to test Santa Cruz, I got stuck, then I took a couple of hours to get out.”

With assistance he was eventually able to leave that rough spot only to get caught up in a caravan of Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) vehicles and ambulances on the way to evacuate patients at the Black River Hospital.

That slow trek, in which he again got out of his vehicle and assisted in clearing the way — alongside soldiers, ambulance drivers and other volunteers — took Sugrim to the Holland Bamboo Scenic Avenue Wednesday evening.

The doctor says that’s where he spent the night and the next day he met up with the Observer team again wearing the same mud-spattered clothes, exhausted but determined.

“We worked through the night, JDF soldiers were here, the ambulance drivers, everyone, we were still up there working through the entire night. We didn’t give up, we worked through the night, there was no stopping,” said Sugrim

He finally restarted his journey around 12:00 pm Thursday driving through a dirt track on Holland Estate to bypass the final stages of Bamboo clean-up.

The surgeon said the fuel that kept him going after so many exhausting hours was his loved ones.

“I was just wondering about my family, wondering about my kids,” he said.

Dr Joel Sugrim [not pictured] got stuck in mud early Wednesday just hours after the passage of Hurricane Melissa while on a dogged journey to get to his wife and children. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)