Sugar Ray Thomas
The young girl, who was hospitalized following a crash with multiple fatalities in St Ann over a year ago, has died.
The girl, Kaci Ferguson died on Wednesday afternoon, July 12 at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital after developing complications.
Kaci Ferguson was in a vegetative state but all hopes were not lost by some family members who were waiting for a steady recovery from the crash, May last year.
The Times carried several stories about her battle for life and the assistance given by a close relative in Brown’s Town. Several readers expressed their sympathies for the girl and some gave funds and items to her mother for Kaci.
The Times understands that a close relative of Kaci took her home to live with her in Brown’s Town.
However, reports are Kaci’s feeding tube fell out and she had to be taken to the back to the hospital for it to be reinserted.
However, little Kaci’s brave fight, over the year since the crash, ended when her condition worsened. This subsequently led to her death last Wednesday.
Kaci, in February of this year was said to be in a condition which would render her fit for discharge from the hospital although she was unable to move or speak. It was however, during this period that she developed pneumonia and had to be admitted for treatment.
Prior to this, Kaci was expected to be released to the care of her mother, Karen Dawkins-Ferguson who lives in Priory, St Ann. Since then Mrs Ferguson, however, was reluctant in passing on information to The Times, up to when she was called in April.
In the meantime, a surgery to replace fragments of Kaci’s skull was also to be done. Sections of the girl’s skull were surgically removed after her initial hospitalization in Kingston, to accommodate the swelling of her brain at that time.
The Times was previously informed by a source that there was no intention of going forward with that operation while Kaci remained in that state as her inability to move might cause more complications after the procedure is done. The surgery was estimated to cost J$600,000 at that time.
Up to the time of her death last week, that surgery was never done.
Kaci has now become the youngest victim of the crash which claimed the lives of five persons, on the Llandovery Road, on Friday morning, May 27, 2016. The bus in which she was travelling was said to be defective and flipped over before crashing into a small SUV.
At the time of the crash Kaci was a student at Lime Tree Gardens Primary School.
Five passengers died and several others were injured in the crash.
Those killed were: 61-year-old Charles Jones, a bus driver of Mason Hall, St Mary; 43-year-old Kareen Johnson, school principal of Charles Town, Windsor Heights; 24-year-old Odain Latty, security guard of Mile End; 24-year-old Dorian Taylor, security guard of Mt Edgecombe, Runaway Bay and 27-year-old Kemar Minto, hotel worker of Roaring River, Steer Town – all of St Ann.
The police reported that the Golden Dragon minibus was transporting passengers, including six students from Ocho Rios to Brown’s Town, when the drive shaft broke, causing the vehicle to overturn and slam into an oncoming Toyota RAV4 sports utility vehicle.
The designated driver of the minibus, Charles Jones, was numbered among the fatalities.
Attorneys had told the North Coast Times last year that none of the injured survivors or relatives of those killed would be able to claim any insurance because the bus was not insured and had no road license.
THOSE CHARGED
The police charged 36-year-old Rohan Robinson of Galina, St Mary. He was the bus conductor, who was driving the Golden Dragon minibus that crashed.
He was later charged with five counts of manslaughter, driving without a licence and without insurance. He is out on $10 million bail.
The owner of the bus, constable Nessia-Gaye Taylor, assigned to the St Ann’s Bay Police Station was charged under the Road Traffic Act, for no insurance coverage and no road licence. In addition, she was charged under the Road Traffic Act by the Transport Authority for aiding and abetting no insurance coverage and no road licence.
Both cases are before the St Ann Parish Court.
