Little girl battles for life

The community of Salem/Runaway Bay, St Ann is grieving and praying for the life and recovery of a brilliant little girl, hit down just meters from her house as she crossed the road from school, Wednesday afternoon about 4:30, April 2. In hospital, unconscious for five days, up to Monday, is Alexzandra Lee-Ann Pelz, 10-year-old grade four student of Runaway Bay All Age School. She sustained a broken arm, broken leg, several lacerations (cuts) and bruises and suffered multiple other injuries, including to her head and internal organs. Head of St Ann Traffic, Sgt Peter Bryan told North Coast Times  Monday that the owner of the car was questioned and released. It is reported that the owner of the Toyota Corolla station wagon that hit the girl, said he was not driving the vehicle at the time. He reported to police that he had stopped to assist a motorist on the Laughlands main road earlier that day  and while doing so, someone  drove away the vehicle. Police said the driver who was a suspect following the accident, went to the St Ann’s Bay police station about 8:30, p.m. a full four hours after the accident  and reported his car had been driven away. Police later found the car hidden and locked up in Discover Bay. Alexzandra, of Middle Street, Salem had just crossed the road at Peking Plaza near her house when according to reports she was hit by a car going west. She did not see the car which slammed into her back,throwing the little girl down the road, scattering her books and items in her knapsack. The driver did not stop. The impact of the collision tore off the car’s front bumper that was left in the road.

NO BED

The girl’s mother is upset that reports to her were that none of the people at a nearby cook shop and other businesses was willing to take the child to hospital. A neighbor of the girl, Mikey who heard the impact and ran some 400 metres out to the road found her still lying on the roadway, motionless, with several people around. He took her in his arms and with the help of others attempted to stop vehicles to get the girl to hospital. A JUTA tour bus stopped and took the girl to hospital. She was given immediate attention and was taken to Cornwall Regional Hospital but according to reports there was no bed there for her so she had to be returned to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital that evening while a search continued for a bed for her.

As the search continued for a bed to get Alex the intensive care and specialized tests needed she was hooked up on life support through to Friday when a bed became available at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). The child’s mother Tina Martin was told she would be transferred there and left ahead and got to the hospital in St Andrew early afternoon , slightly after which the child arrived by helicopter from St Ann’s Bay, accompanied by Dr Young who the child’s mother described as “a guardian angel.” Ms Martin was told that the child had internal injuries including “scarring of her lung.” Said her mother, “Out there where she was hit, there was not a drop of blood, not one drop.” Her brain was also reportedly swollen and the procedures at St Ann’s Bay Hospital, included putting her to sleep. Ms Martin said  Alex and two of her classmates were on the bus and when Alexzandra came off she asked the driver to cross her. She said she was told that the driver told her “Pickney cross the road!” and then she appealed to the conductor who also refused to cross her. She said Alexandra had in fact crossed and was on the soft shoulder when she was hit. “Mi cahn lef off mi knee,” Ms Martin said. She said “I just want back my daughter.” She said she was hopeful because a broken leg was put into cast at UHWI and the child was expected to get blood transfusion Monday and to be taken out of anaesthetics as her swollen brain would have been expected to get back to near normal by then.