One day after Energy Minister Franklin Khan expressed ‘disgust’ with Petrotrin’s response to its many oil spills and called on them to put their house in order, five residents from a fenceline community bordering one of its Marabella installations had to be rushed to hospital after falling sick from gas emissions on Thursday night.
Petrotrin confirmed a report that the residents were taken to the Augustus Long Hospital for medical review and discharged at 9 pm after experiencing discomfort due to a smell.
Among the affected residents of Mango and Silk Cotton Avenue were two pregnant sisters, Anastasia Fleary and Tiffany Boodoo, who were taken by ambulance to hospital after being overwhelmed by the smell. The sisters were treated and released after experiencing tightening of their chest, headaches, burning and itchy eyes and nose and an unceasing cough, but they have not returned to their home. Along with their mother, Lorna Simon Sylvan, they were temporarily relocated to a guest house in Claxton Bay, where they spent the night.
The company said it had also provided temporary relocation for two other families with infant children and that its HSE personnel were monitoring the situation and conducting air testing. Other residents also sought alternative accommodation for the night.
Upset and angry residents who could not stay in their homes congregated in the open air, where they complained to the media that they were fed up with these situations, which were happening too often.
Sylvan, who was reached by phone yesterday, said she had an ominous feeling of deja vu on Thursday evening, as Boodoo, who was in the first trimester of her pregnancy during the 2014 oil spill in Marabella, had lost her twin babies.
“I cannot go through that again. It’s very hard and very painful and very difficult,” she said on Thursday night while her daughters were being treated at hospital.
Sylvan said Fleary is also in her first trimester and she is extremely worried that she could lose her child due to the distressing situation. Boodoo is in the eighth month of her pregnancy. She called on Petrotrin to step up and do something, saying the children in the community had not eaten on Thursday evening because they could not light open flames to cook.
“Children are suffering with rashes and headaches and older people are dying from massive heart attack after massive heart attack.”
Sylvan said she and her children had left the guest house and were staying with relatives in different areas.
“As it stands now, I don’t know where we will be spending Friday night.”
Sylvan also said she was very upset by comments from one of the doctors who treated Anastasia.
“The doctor told her fumes cannot make her lose her baby. These doctors just don’t care about us. These things are happening too often in this community and Petrotrin just does not care,” she said between bouts of coughing.
Glenda Dalrymple, who said she is asthmatic, said she has to sleep with a nebuliser on her bed because the scent permeates the atmosphere. She said every time that happens her five-year-old son also falls ill.
“I living by the doctor and not getting better. They keep telling me I have to move, but Petrotrin is doing nothing for us.”