In Guyana news, a wife suspects something is amis…A GUYANESE woman is seeking answers from the management of an oil tanker on which her 48-year-old husband, Orlando Allen was found dead on July 27.
Orlando Allen worked with the Prithard Gordon Tanker Limited which has its head office in the United Kingdom. Debra Allen told the Guyana Chronicle during a recent interview that she was forced to go to the media after the company which her husband worked with called her to report the death of her husband and the three persons she spoke with all gave different accounts as to how the man may have met his demise.
The woman also stated that although her husband died on the job, the company was only prepared to give her US$1,000 and out of that money she had to pay for the autopsy of her husband since it was allegedly determined by a doctor working closely with the vessel’s management that the man had died of natural causes.
Pritchard Gordon vessel. Photo courtesy www.henderline.nl
Ms Allen explained that the company informed her that they were going to give her US,000 to assist with the funeral expenses of her husband.
However, after she requested that an autopsy be done on her husband, the company allegedly made it clear to her that they will not be standing that expense and that if she wanted it, she will have to use the money they were giving to her and pay for it.
They also indicated to her that they were not going to stand any of her expenses to travel to Curacao to witness the autopsy and if she wanted to do that, again it will have to be her expense.
The company then promised her that they will be depositing the remaining sum from the US,000 after the autopsy into her bank account but, up to Tuesday, the family had not received that money.
It was these incidents which failed to add up that forced the woman to take her story to the media.
As a result of the media reports on the story, yesterday the family received an email from the company stating that she was no longer required to pay for the autopsy and that the company will stand that expense.
In addition, the company will be sending her the entire sum of US,000 to her bank account rather than using part of it to offset the cost of the autopsy.
There was then a call placed to a relative that stated that the family misled the media and should return to the media to clarify claims that the company had asked the family to pay for the autopsy, but the family will do no such thing since they maintain that the company did make such a request.
Yesterday, a relative told this publication that now that the issue has reached a level where the world is aware of what happened on the ship, the company is seeking to cover its tracks and wants to drag the family into a position that will see them putting a disclaimer to their own utterances.
This publication was informed that the company told the family that the autopsy was completed but was in Dutch and that the report needed to be translated into English. This process, the company explained, would take six weeks.
By that time the body of the man would have already been returned to Guyana and buried. The family is suspecting that something is amiss and that the company is hiding something from them.
On Tuesday the man’s wife, Debra Allen told Guyana Chronicle that her husband left Guyana on July 23 to join the vessel which was docked in Barbados.
He had a delay in Trinidad before moving on to join the Barbados-docked vessel.
Orlando Allen
The man joined the vessel in Barbados on July 24 and left for Curacao the following day and arrived there on July 27. The woman added that when her husband arrived at the location he telephoned her about 06:15 hrs the morning to inform that he had reached and that he was going to call her again in the afternoon.
It was more than four hours when the woman received a call around 10:30hrs the very morning informing her that her husband had died. The caller claimed to be the agent for the vessel and proceeded to ask the woman when she last spoke to her husband and she replied accordingly.
She said the agent then informed her that her husband had collapsed and died while in the engine room of the vessel and when they brought him out, he was not breathing.
However, an hour later, there was another call – this time from the captain of the vessel but his account of what transpired differed vastly from what the agent had told the family.
The captain told the man’s wife that her husband fell in the engine room while around his workmates and when they brought him out; he seemed restless and was talking a bit.
She related that the captain reported to her that they tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but that did not work and they summoned the paramedics. When the efforts by the paramedics failed the captain then summoned the coastguard to take the man off the vessel but by the time they arrived he was already dead.
Mrs. Allen explained that before her husband left the country to join the vessel he had a complete medical done which also checked his heart and blood pressure and he was given an all clear.
However, on the July 29 the personnel manager of the company telephoned and told the widow that he knows she has a lot of questions. He then refuted the account of the man’s death as related by the vessel’s captain and offered the family an explanation similar to that given by the agent.
The company will be sending the man’s body back to Guyana on Saturday. His personal effects which were on his person at the time of his death along with his clothing and other belongings will be returned also to the family.
Article from Guyana Chronicle Online. Written by Leroy Smith
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