Bequia is NOT the place to be in the event of a catastrophic medical emergency, especially back in the early ‘80s. The Island Doctor (when we had one) was able to handle small ailments at the clinic, but anything major had to be dealt with at the hospital on the mainland, and that wasn’t so great either!
Not too long after Vanessa was born my mother and father invited Mac and me to the Frangi Barbecue, and we were dressed and ready to go. We were on the deck Mac had recently built at our house, and Mom was trying in vain to do up my necklace.. She complained that she had forgotten her glasses and Dad, who was holding the baby, offered to help. Passing Vanessa to mom he took over the job of clasping the necklace.
Mom, with the baby in her arms, leaned against the deck gate not realizing it hadn’t been properly latched. It also had not been properly installed, and instead of swinging IN it swung OUT. My mother, instead of dropping the baby and trying to save herself, cradled the baby against her bosom and fell down the steep steps onto the rocky ground.
Mac, dad and I raced to get to her. The baby was wailing but unhurt, my mother was a different story. My stomach still flips over every time I remember what was revealed when my father lifted her long dress. Mom had a terrible compound fracture, the bone had snapped and come through her skin, leaving her ankle literally dangling.
Mac raced to find the Doctor, alerting Nolly and Bluesy along the way. In no time at all a large crowd had gathered around us. My mother was quiet but conscious, obviously in a great deal of pain. The crowd around us was not helping the situation, crying out such things as, “Aw God, they gwine chop off she foot”, and, “Aw Jesus Lord, she never walk again!”. They loved and respected my mother and were upset, but I wished with all my heart they would SHUT UP! I had never felt so helpless in my life.
The Doctor arrived and we set about making a stretcher for mom. We took the kitchen door off its hinges and transferred her to it as gently as possible. The doctor wrapped an empty Heineken box around her ankle to stabilize it, securing it with some rope. By now the crowd had swelled, and everyone stood in awe of my mother’s bravery , she was remarkably calm and collected through it all.
Mom had to be taken immediately to Kingstown and by then it was dark. A friend offered the use of his pirogue, an open boat with an engine, to make the trip across the rough channel. Hodge Taylor offered to accompany Mac and Dad, and equipped with just a hand-held VHF radio they walked to the bayside with my poor mom, lying in pain on my kitchen door with a Heineken box for a temporary cast.
The whole episode was a nightmare. It took three days for mom to be stabilized enough to be moved from the hospital in Kingstown. She was then flown to Canada via Barbados, where she was in an isolation ward for a long time because of the gangrene that had set in. She came very close to losing her leg, and when they were finally able to operate the surgeons had their doubts as to whether she would ever use the foot again.
Mom proved the surgeons wrong, she had a will of iron and was up and walking with the help of a cane by the time she returned to Bequia. Meanwhile Mac fixed the gate on the porch so that it swung IN, not OUT. However, during the time we lived in that house I always checked to make sure that the gate was latched, then checked again. Bequia is NOT the place to have a medical emergency!