Advertisement 87
Advertisement 211
Advertisement 219
Sweet-I Robertson. (Internet photo)
Sweet-I Robertson. (Internet photo)

The woman, who became paralysed when, as a student in October 2010, she was shot in the neck, has been sent to Cuba for medical attention.

Twenty-year-old Sweet-I Robertson was shot in the neck in October 2010 during an altercation between some young men.

The injuries that the Chateaubelair resident sustained have left her paralysed from the neck down, with only limited use of one arm.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said on Saturday that Robertson, along with two other persons whom he did not name, were sent to Cuba. “… we spend a lot of money like that too,” Gonsalves said at a ceremony for the opening of the Georgetown Smart Hospital.

“And the bill ends up at the Office of the Prime Minister and we have to contribute.

Advertisement 21

“I tell you, the amount of money we spend for people to do medical procedures overseas, particularly tertiary medial procedures.

“Those that can do here, we don’t pay for anybody to go overseas, because the government can’t be providing the services here — good services for primary, secondary and some tertiary facilities and you want to go overseas,” he said.

In March, as the Fourth Regional Workshop on Negotiations for the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty opened, Gonsalves used Robertson’s case to highlight the impact of years of unregulated trade in weapons.

“With that single bullet, this young lady went from being a star athlete at her school to a wheelchair-bound symbol of the creeping scourge of arms and ammunition into the most remote corners of our Caribbean civilization,” Gonsalves said.

Separately, Gonsalves told Parliament this year that his Government, last year, spent EC$335,826.08 (EC$1=US$0.37) on the medical bills of a young man involved in an accident in which the driver and the vehicle were uninsured.

One reply on “Woman paralysed by gunshot sent to Cuba for medical attention”

  1. Good luck and best wishes to the young lady. She should of been sent within hours of her injury. Its clinical fact that little can be done after a period of two years.

    I condemn Gonsalves on two counts

    1/ his failure to send her in good time

    2/ useing this gesture for political purposes for electioneering.

    Surely the Cubans have bled us dry at the Argyle airport we have paid them multi millions. If the were such comradly friends they would be doing whatever they are doing free.

    If we have to pay, send her to a proper facility in the US, somewhere where she will get quality attention and the very latest treatment procedures available. If we have to pay give the girl the best possible.

    I also find Gonsalves statement out of order “And the bill ends up at the Office of the Prime Minister and we have to contribute”. Gonsalves its us the people that are contributing, not you, I doubt one RED cent will be paid from your pocket. Its totally out of order to even mention your office and payment, in this matter, its wicked electioneering.

Comments closed.