Tonight more than 24 hours after he was knocked down a 4-year-old boy is still unconscious and barely clinging to life in the KHMH. The child is Leeton Galvez and he was knocked down around 3 pm near his home in Sandhill Village at mile 19 on the Northern Highway. Keith Swift met Leeton's family members at his bedside today.
Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
Leeton Galvez's shoulder is broken, his brain is swollen, and doctors suspect there is massive internal bleeding. Today at the KHMH I met Leeton unconscious and the petite 4 year old is clinging on to life with the help of this ventilator machine. His mother is holding vigil at his beside clinging on to something else: hope.
Aldy Galvez, Leeton's Mother
"His condition is still worse. I don't know what to say. I really want my baby to get home back." [Sobbing]
Leeton was knocked down yesterday afternoon near his home in Sandhill Village. His mother Aldy Galvez says she sent Leeton to buy but he never made it back.
Aldy Galvez,
"Yesterday I sent my baby to go buy coconut powder and he went to his stepfather
and he came and showed me the money and I told him to go to the shop to go buy. I sat down and I watched to see if he would come back and I heard a bang. I told my mother-in-law that I heard an accident out there and I went out there and I told them that is not my baby because I didn't send him over the road, I sent him to the shop right next to us. I didn't know it was my baby."
Leeton was hit and his family suspects the 4 year old attempted to cross the street and that is when he was hit by a Toyota Hilux. The first family member on the scene was his grandmother Irene Budd.
Irene Budd, Grandmother
"When I ran out there and I saw him lying on the side of the road and a crowd was around him and everybody was saying he was dead. After we found out that he wasn't breathing but he had a pulse so I asked if a truck that was parked there was knocked him down and they said yes. So I asked the driver to take them and so they put him in the vehicle and I rode along with them. We stopped at the BDF Camp where we got some assistance and they called the ambulance from there which took us down here to the A & E at the KHMH."
Keith Swift,
What do you think went wrong on the highway to cause this accident?
Irene Budd,
"Well according to what I understand the child was standing to the side of the road waiting to cross, yes, two vehicles passed coming from opposite directions and after the two vehicles passed that was the time he went to cross the road. Then came this white pickup truck and he saw the pickup truck and then he turned back and when turned back, that is when the pickup hit him."
As Budd mentioned, the driver of the pickup transported Leeton to the hospital but the family says that is not enough.
Aldy Galvez,
"I want the driver who knocked my baby come and help him. Yesterday he came and dropped my baby and then he came back and he said he would come and see my baby but he didn't come back."
Irene Budd,
"If the driver was paying attention he must have seen some on the road, or even on the roadside. I guess they were talking and gazing and wasn't paying any attention to the road."
But blame aside, Leeton's family says just wants him to wake up and get better.
Aldy Galvez,
"Right now he needs help because he needs another CAT Scan for his head so we know more or less the condition."
Keith Swift,
Is he responding to you?
Aldy Galvez,
"No. He is in a bad condition and anyone who is watching I want them to assist me with my baby so I could get over with it. I really can't take this."
Irene Budd,
"Its very hard but I pray for God to give me strength to stand strong and so far I am the strongest one here for him."
Leeton requires a CATscan and the family is asking for assistance in securing the financing for it. The family can be contacted at 621-7394. The driver is 24-year-old Edilberto Guerra and he is not detained by police. Police say Guerra has been served with a notice of intended prosecution and based on the outcome of their investigations, a decision will be made to charge him.
