‘SURREAL’

When trained emergency medical technician (EMT) Kamla Forbes-Thomas saw that popular disc jockey Arif Cooper had collapsed at the Recall – Throwback Festival she was enjoying on Saturday night, her first instinct was to run towards him and offer assistance.

The 49-year-old popular disc jockey and music producer collapsed on stage while mixing a soca set.

Although the Andrew’s Memorial Hospital is located metres away from the Police Officers Club in St Andrew, where the event was being held, Cooper died after Forbes-Thomas and two nurses, who were also patrons, tried to resuscitate him.

“If there was an ambulance available, we would have been to the hospital on time because we literally tried for 10 minutes. We performed CPR for 10 minutes before we were able to put him on a board table and transfer him into a panel van from the planning committee to move him,” Forbes-Thomas, who is also a physiotherapist, told The Gleaner on Sunday morning, hours after the tragic events.

“This rule where events with over a certain number of people in attendance have to have an ambulance on standby must be enforced. I am not blaming the promoters, but based on the rule, I am calling for better medical coverage because the venue is right across the road from the hospital, so we could have moved a little faster,” she said.

Forbes-Thomas recalled the frightening moments leading up to Cooper’s death.

“When I saw him at first, he appeared to be having a seizure, but he was breathing. He stopped breathing when he came out of the seizure, and that’s when we started CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation),” she told The Gleaner.

“My fingers cut up right now because my hand was in his mouth the whole time trying to keep his airways clear because there were no mouth guards or anything, but he died en route to hospital. They just had to pronounce him. It could have ended differently with the right things in place,” she said.

When contacted on Sunday, Emeleo Ebanks, public relations officer at the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), could not immediately say before Monday whether the event organisers had received a permit from the entity for the event as he was not at his office.

However, he said that among the requirements for the granting of a fire permit, which is needed for all public gatherings, is the need to have a medical emergency response plan, including disclosing which ambulance service has been engaged to provide medical coverage at the event.

Ebanks said that when permits are granted by the JFB, an inspection team would conduct checks before the start of and/or during an event to ensure that fire and emergency requirements or rules are being adhered to.

If there are breaches, he explained, “the promoter is placed on a list to say that this individual was not completely honest with the information that they provided, so next time you put checks in place to make sure that everything is there”.

When contacted by The Gleaner on Sunday to ask about the permits and arrangements for medical emergencies at the event, one of the promoters said he did not wish to comment at the time.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness’s website also highlights that all public gatherings are required to have medical coverage. One of its units is responsible for granting approval to private entities who wish to offer medical coverage at entertainment events.

“The companies must submit a detailed proposal to the ministry. The submission must include a medical plan, categories and numbers of staff, equipment and sundries to be provided and name, date, duration and location of the event,” the ministry’s website says.

Forbes-Thomas is also calling on the authorities to improve public education in basic life support given that the police officers gathered around after Cooper collapsed did not offer simple CPR.

“Not even the police could help us. They literally stood there and did nothing,” the EMT told The Gleaner.

“I don’t go to party to save people, so I didn’t have anything [medical] with me, but it really shouldn’t have been a situation where patrons had to jump into action. The selector at one point was calling out for medical persons,” she said, calling for stricter monitoring of events to ensure adequate medical coverage.

News of Cooper’s death has triggered shockwaves in the media and entertainment fraternities and among the public.

Derrick Wilks, the station manager at FAME 95 FM who supervises Cooper, said that the DJ should have been returning to work on Sunday after leave of one week.

“It’s still a bit surreal. I haven’t been able to properly process it because there are so many moving parts since his passing and I’m really trying to navigate the space right now. He had asked for a week off, which I gladly gave him because he was one of my most dependable presenters,” said Wilks, who has had to deal with the loss of other close colleagues within the last year, including Barbara Gloudon and François St Juste.

“Whenever there was an emergency, I could always call Arif. He might be a little late, but he was guaranteed to turn up because he was reliable,” Wilks added. “He was a giant in this industry [and is] really going to be missed. I know I’m going to miss him.”

Colleague Collin Hines described Cooper as one of the elite DJs of the generation.

“It’s a big loss to RJR and even bigger to his family,” he told The Gleaner.

The RJRGLEANER Communications Group, which operated FAME 95 FM, says it had been plunged into mourning by the sudden passing of ‘Super Coop’.

Speaking on behalf of the group, CEO Gary Allen hailed Cooper as a “genius in the broadcast selection and mixing”, field with his skills being known and respected nationally, regionally, and internationally.

Allen recalled that Cooper won a number of DJ mixing competitions regionally and internationally.

“Arif is well loved for his music knowledge and his competitiveness when it came to demonstrating that FAME had no equal in the unearthing and sharing of a wide range of music in its genre,” Allen said.

He added that the loss, coming so soon after the heels of the passing of Cooper’s former boss St Juste, makes this development a difficult one for the RJRGLEANER family to contend with.

Allen expressed condolences to Cooper’s immediate and professional family members on behalf of the multimedia group.

roxroy.mclean@gleanerjm.com ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com