Facing the challenge of not only adapting to a whole new environment, but recovering from a venomous snake bite, 16-year-old Sherwin Leonard of the Amerindian settlement of Baramita, Region One, is counting each day and praying for the day he gets to return home to his family.
The recovering teenager, Sherwin Leonard, on his hospital bed
Having been air dashed to the city after the encounter with the venomous beast last week, Leonard remains hospitalised at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC). He told Guyana Times he would usually go with his father to hunt, but on the fateful day, he was out hunting alone in dense forest when he accidentally stepped on the creature and it sprang up and bit him.
With his leg bleeding, he killed the snake with his hunting gear, then
slowly made his way home, where he was attended to and immediately rushed to the Baramita Hospital. Nurses there treated him in an attempt to avoid the poison from spreading to other parts of his body, and he was medivaced to the city for better medical attention.
The teenager said this is his first time in Georgetown, and he had never previously seen so many people. The only son for his parents, he noted that his brother-in-law is the only one who comes to visit him, since his mother takes care of his younger siblings and his father now has to hunt to feed the rest of the family.
“Me nah know way me deh! Me nah even know when me go come out ah here, and dah ah wah me ah study,” the lad explained. He said that he misses home and is anxious to return to his family.
