Mother grieves Forth's passing

Sandra Seymour, the mother of Okeem Forth, is still finding his passing after a recent football game as a shock.

Forth was elbowed in the neck by an opposing player during the Magnum/KSAFA Major League quarter-final game on April 28 between Olympic Gardens and Molynes United, and died after leaving the Constant Spring Complex in an ambulance.

"I have to put the best on the outside. It is painful to lose a son that was so loving to his mother," Seymour told The Gleaner.

"He is so special to me. I have three sons, and Okeem is the second one. He is always saying that football will make him able to make a better life for me," she said while attempting to fight back tears.

Seymour recounted that she got news about her 18-year-old son's death from a neighbour who had received a phone call at about 10 p.m. on the night of the match.

"When I was told the news by my friend, who live across the road, I could not believe it," she recalled. "He had manners, did not drink, smoke or party a lot. He loved football and started playing from very young," she said of her son who was a star player on Tivoli High's Manning Cup team last year.

"I did not know how much he was loved by others until the nine night that was last Saturday night. Everybody love him," she said.

MORE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE

Oshane Campbell, who was a teammate and close friend of Forth, said more could have been done to save him.

"Okeem got an elbow from the Molynes player and was substituted. I was on the field and saw him on the ground, I called to the referee then ran over to where he was and checked his pulse. Felt none, he was cold," Campbell recounted.

"I signalled to the bench for assistance. The medical team was poor as there was an ambulance but no oxygen. He needed better medical care and he would be here with us," he said during a visit to his late friend's home yesterday.

Another friend, Kimani Morgan, said that the medical team should have been better equipped.

"The medical team should have been alert. I am a person who knows about CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and he needed oxygen. There was none," Morgan said.

The funeral for Forth is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, May 28.