A Union Island man says he has been left bed-resting after being shocked by a VINLEC transformer near a sidewalk in Kingstown on Aug. 30.
Dimmion Questelles, 25, who relocated to St. Vincent after the passage of Hurricane Beryl on July 1, said that VINLEC, the state-owned electricity company, should block off the transformer and warn people about its dangers.
He told iWitness News that he was going to Union Island sometime before noon on Aug. 30 when he walked past the transformer, located near the sidewalk opposite CK Greaves & Co. Ltd, on Upper Bay Street, Kingstown.
Questelles said that he had seen other people walk past the transformer earlier in the day, along the small sidewalk space between the transformer and a nearby building.
“As soon as I stepped, there was a little puddle there and I started to get shocked,” Questelles told iWitness News.
“And it drew me behind the wall and the transformer. I did not even touch the transformer. I didn’t even reach that far to touch it,” he said.
“So, I was there fighting. My feet gave out and I was trying to cry out for help because there was a woman in front me and like she didn’t know what to do.
“I tried my best to fight to roll backwards and came out. I couldn’t catch myself for a while.”
Questelles said that when he was finally able to stand, someone pointed out that his left foot was bleeding.
“My toenail kind of burst. I had to take a taxi to the hospital.”
He said that at the hospital, he asked the staff to contact VINLEC about the incident and ask that the company cordon off the area.
“Two of VINLEC’s workers reached down there and questioned me about what happened,” he said.
Questelles told iWitness News that the hospital staff bandaged his foot, did some tests and discharged him the same day.
He said VINLEC later told him that they needed a follow-up.
“I went to a private doctor because the hospital was taking too long. They said it would take four to six weeks. I told them it was urgent but to me, like they were not taking anything seriously. So I went to [a private doctor].”
Questelles said he would take the report to VINLEC on Friday.
Questelles said he worked as an electrician’s apprentice in Union Island but had gotten a job at CK Greaves after he relocated to St. Vincent.
He is now on sick leave and CK Greaves has told him that the job is there for him whenever he recovers, although he only started recently, he told iWitness News.
Questelles said he had mixed feelings about the electrocution.
“I feel back because it is like I am at home; I can’t do anything. Even now, the foot is healing but putting on shoes, it is going to hurt so I am bed-resting,” he told iWitness News.
“I can’t do anything. I feel really stupid because I don’t like to be doing nothing. I am really frustrated. At the same time, I am glad it happened to me and nobody else because at the same time I was saying, ‘if it was a child, that might have been it for them.’”
He told iWitness News he thinks that the area should be blocked off completely “because them guys say people go there and pee.
“One of the taxi guys said people are always peeing there,” he told iWitness News.
He should sue Vinlec for pain and suffering.
Then the victim goes home and rest as if it’s all right.