Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Mom blasts Kemps Hill High as footballer son hospitalised for weeks

Published:Tuesday | October 25, 2022 | 12:11 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Kemps High Hill goalkeeper Raheem Reid in hospital.
Kemps High Hill goalkeeper Raheem Reid in hospital.
Kemps Hill High goalkeeper Raheem Reid.
Kemps Hill High goalkeeper Raheem Reid.
1
2

Administrators at Kemps Hill High have come under fire for allegedly failing to inform his mother of a football injury amid subsequent mounting hospitalisation and treatment expenses she has had to shoulder. Eugennie Brown said that her son, Raheem...

Administrators at Kemps Hill High have come under fire for allegedly failing to inform his mother of a football injury amid subsequent mounting hospitalisation and treatment expenses she has had to shoulder.

Eugennie Brown said that her son, Raheem Reid, injured his knee in the opening match of the daCosta Cup on Saturday, September 10, at Sabina Park against Garvey Maceo High and was allegedly kept in the dark that he was taken to Lionel Town Hospital.

Raheem reportedly collapsed the following day and was again taken to May Pen Hospital, where he has been admitted since then. He has been hospitalised for more than a month.

Her son, who has boarded at the school since summer, was also diagnosed with leptospirosis and dengue.

The teenager has undergone tests costing $31,000, with cumulative expenses nearing $50,000.

The mother has appealed to school authorities for assistance but has reportedly been snubbed.

“It hard pon mi. ... Mi sister pay two bill fi mi and say she can't manage fi pay no more. One a di bill a $21,000 and one a $13,000 and right now mi have another $13,000 fi go pay and no compensation from the school,” the single mother lamented of his prolonged leptospirosis treatment.

When contacted by The Gleaner, Kemps Hill High principal Vernon Morrison declined comment.

However, Barrington Richardson, regional director for Region Seven in the Ministry of Education and Youth, said there have been conflicting accounts.

“We are collecting the reports because the parent came into our office and met with the officer and she advised her to send us a medical report to substantiate her claim, because it is just a verbal report. The school is saying that they are not aware of any injury during any match. The parent is saying there was an injury,” the director said.

Brown believes that her son contracted leptospirosis at the school dorm but Richardson said he had received reports that the 18-year-old was “between places” and may have been infected elsewhere.

Richardson sought to assure her that the ministry would intervene once it received documentation to substantiate the claims. The Region Seven director said he has already got a report from the school, the coach, two students, as well as the guidance counsellor.

“We are awaiting a report from the mother so we can submit to central ministry for their review and guidance on the matter,” said Richardson.

Keith Wellington, president of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association, which has oversight of the daCosta Cup, said while he could not comment on the specific match incident, there are standard operating protocols on how football injuries should be handled.

“If the student suffers an injury, whether at school or representing the school off the compound or whatever, then obviously the ministry has a safety and security guideline that speaks to matters being reported to the nurse and medical attention being sought, parents informed, and authorising medical procedure as it relates to the treatment of the child, especially if the child is a minor,” he said.

cecelia.livingston@gleanerjm.com