And, switching gears...
Right now, football fans across the world tune in religiously to the World Cup coverage, but one ardent teenage football fan is getting the view of Messi and Ronaldo from his hospital bed, recovering from an accident that might leave him paralyzed.
On October 12th, 17-year-old Jaheem Williams was heading home after attending classes at Belize Adventist Junior College when the busito he was traveling in collided headfirst into an ambulance that was overtaking another vehicle. The accident killed one student and injured four others, including Williams.
And tonight, he will be sleeping in the hospital yet again, but his family is confident he will be able to recover. Now, they're asking for help to get him the best care possible.
Courtney Menzies spoke with his mother today and has this story.
17-year-old Jaheem Williams has been hospitalized at the KHMH for over a month and a half. He was one of the victims in the Ranchito accident that claimed the life of another student, 21-year-old Jorge Vargas.
Williams survived, but his recovery has been slow. He's been in and out of consciousness, had several procedures done, and even battled with a lung infection. But his mother explained that he is still fighting to stay alive.
Natticia Williams, Mother of Accident Victim
"He had to do about like four surgeries. He had a spine injury, so from that spine injury we had to do a skull traction on him to snap back the two bones that were dislocated and after that, he ended up catching pneumonia. That was a hell of a thing because you know that has to do with your lungs so that put a toll on his breathing, we had to put him back on the ventilators. Then we had to put a feeding tube on him and right now they're feeding him through the tube. Over the weekend, Jaheem gave us a scare, his blood pressure dropped low, a person's blood pressure should be under 60, he was in the 30's. Anything after that would have caused him to go into cardiac arrest and maybe we could have lost him but with prayers and all that… yesterday when I came it went back over 60 so I said, thank God, the power of prayers."
"Yesterday when we came, he was more alert, when I talked to him, he opened his eyes, he turned his head, looked at me, he's still not talking, but we know that he's listening now, he can hear us more better and his eyes are open."
And while it's a relief that he's awake, his family must still content with the possibility that he could be left paralyzed in his legs.
Natticia Williams, Mother of Accident Victim
"When he was talking, Jaheem said, ma you know something, they won't keep me down, I will push and if I have to workout to get back his feelings that is what he will do because he said he doesn't want to stay cripple or paralyzed like that."
"He has no sensation right now, and we can't ask him if he's feeling anything because he can't talk so we just have to wait and see when he can actually talk so we can see what's going on with him."
And it's a tragic state for a promising teenager with a love for playing football.
Natticia Williams, Mother of Accident Victim
"Jaheem is a very respectable person, everybody loves Jaheem. Who just meets him today, when they see me tomorrow they say, that little boy there is a very respectable person, everything, yes ma'am, yes sir. Nobody had anything bad to say about him. Jaheem has a passion for football so everything for him is football. He's a very smart boy, he just graduated last year from Belize Adventist College, honor roll, so it was his first year at the junior college and he was excited so when this happen to him it was a complete shock for everyone, his friends at school, everybody that he played football with, it was a really devastating time for everyone."
And while the family has been getting support, they're hoping for financial assistance to be able to take Young Jaheem out of the country.
Natticia Williams, Mother of Accident Victim
"Right now, me and the family, we're thinking about trying to see if we can take him out of the country, maybe we can get some kind of assistance to try to move him and see if we can get more, not say better care but more."
"Another type of opinion. We know there's better care out there but we're just thinking of getting him better care because the people out there at Karl Heusner, they are definitely working on him and I can't say nothing about them, they're trying and they have him alive still so I'm grateful for that as well but I still feel that there's more that the family can do to help him recover more quickly."
If you would like to assist Jaheem, his mother can be reached at phone number 632-0226.
Again that number is 632-0226. You can also make a deposit to Atlantic Bank account, 210 679 256.
