‘I can’t help myself’ - Mom badly hurt in crash wants to hug her babies again

Althea Watkins cannot lift her arms to hug her nine-month-old baby, a reality she now faces after a February 19 motor vehicle crash along Paradise main road in Westmoreland.

The crash has left the 36-year-old mother with a broken neck and severe spinal injuries.

"It is not nice because right now I am lying down helpless," the mother of five told THE STAR. "I can only barely lift my right hand. I can't do nothing at all to help myself."

Watkins, who is from Petersfield in Westmoreland, has been a patient at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) since February 20. Doctors diagnosed her with a fractured left hand, slipped spinal discs, a broken cervical spine and neurological complications, including fluid build-up in the brain.

"If you touch me, I can identify the parts of the body you touch, but I can't move," she said quietly.

Last Saturday, doctors removed bone from her hip and inserted it into her neck in an emergency effort to stabilise the area and allow her to sit upright. However, she has been advised that she now requires full spinal stabilisation surgery involving specialised hardware.

"That was just for me to sit up," she explained of the first procedure. "For the full surgery I need the nuts and bolts and screws."

Watkins said the required surgical hardware and procedure are expected to cost approximately $6 million. Physiotherapy, medication and rehabilitation will add to the overall expense.

Although public healthcare in Jamaica carries no user fees, persons facing severe spinal injuries are sometimes forced to privately source costly, specialised surgical hardware when public hospitals do not have the implants readily available.

While she battles physically, Watkins said the emotional toll has been overwhelming.

Her five children, ages 18, 16, 12, four and nine months remain in Westmoreland while she receives treatment in Kingston.

"When my children come and see me like this, all of them cry," she said. "I never want my children to see me helpless."

She described herself as a mother who was always active cooking, cleaning and working wherever she could to provide. "I cook. I make sure they go to school. I clean. I do everything for my children," she said. "Now I have to depend on people to turn me in the bed."

Watkins recounted that on February 19, while travelling in a taxi towards Savanna-la-Mar, the driver lost control of the vehicle. She said the car flipped twice before coming to a stop against a fence.

"When I realise I was seriously hurt... everybody come out of the vehicle and I tried to raise my hand to get up and my hand dropped back," she said. "I started to cry and ask them to take me up but do not close my arms together."

She was first taken to Savanna-la-Mar Hospital before being transferred to KPH due to the severity of her injuries, another example of the devastating human toll of motor vehicle crashes.

Through it all, her thoughts remain fixed on her children.

"Mi just want to hug my babies again," she said.

As at March 2, a total of 45 lives have been lost in 39 fatal collisions across Jamaica. It is, however, unclear how many persons have been injured in crashes during the period.