Claxton Bay man stung to deathBy CECILY ASSON Monday, September 14 2009
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A worker from the Apiaries Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Princes Town, spraying the temple where Ramsundar Parsan was praying yesterday morning ...
A 51-year-old Claxton Bay father was stung to death by a swarm of African killer bees while praying in his temple in his yard yesterday morning.
Ramsundar Parsan of Forres Park Road, Claxton Bay, collapsed and died at home while awaiting transportation to take him to the San Fernando General Hospital.
According to relatives, he unknowingly agitated the insects when he opened a box to get some material to perform his prayers.
Parsan, a father of three girls, never knew the bees were living in the box, his grieving brother Ricky, 41, said in an interview.
It was only two weeks ago, Parsan’s neighbour, Pastor Mervyn Jadulal of the nearby Jesus Resurrection Life Ministries, observed the bees living in a condemned steel pole and reported it to Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (TTEC) Newsday was told.
Yesterday, the pastor who cut short his Sunday morning worship to offer support to Parsan’s distraught relatives said TTEC never responded.
He said, “I saw school children being afraid to walk the road because the bees were always flying about.” He said he called TTEC emergency line hoping that they would come and look at it and remove the leaning light pole that was condemned about five years ago.
Hours after Parsan’s death yesterday, a team from the Apiaries Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Princes Town under the supervision of Theodore Bruce visited and conducted spraying operations in and around the temple.
Parsan’s brother Ricky said that it was his brother’s routine to go each morning to the temple and make his devotions.
“This morning was no different, he went to his prayer room in the temple. He opened the box to take out some prayer material but the bees flew out and stung him all over his body,” he said.
Parsan, who is a diabetic and also has a heart condition walked out the temple and went inside his home and told relatives what had happened. “He took a shower because he complained about feeling warm. We were waiting on my nephew to take him to the hospital when he started frothing at the mouth, he then collapsed and died.”
He said he died less than an hour after he was stung.
The body was viewed by the District Medical Officer and later removed to the mortuary of the San Fernando General Hospital. A post mortem will be performed today.
