A fun-filled two week vacation to Guyana for a family of three from Brooklyn, New York, was marred on Sunday when 53-year-old Donald Blake plunged into a black water creek at the Umbrella Resort on the Soesdyke Linden Highway and injured himself.

Blake, whose condition is listed as critical, is at present in the Surgical Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital, nursing broken bones at the back of his neck. His distraught wife Shireen, and daughter Lisa, yesterday tried to be strong as they stood at his bedside offering tender care. They confirmed that arrangements are being made for the injured man to be flown out to the United States for further medical intervention.

In the meantime, the injured region of his body is to be placed in a cast for him to undertake the journey. He is to be received by a medical team on arrival at the John. F. Kennedy Airport.

Shireen who said she witnessed her husband’s mishap at the resort, recalled that he was swimming in the water during the afternoon, and around 16:30h was about to take a plunge into the creek when she called out to him, signalling not to, because she sensed that it was shallow. However, because of background noises, he did not hear and plunged headlong into the water.
Blake who migrated from Guyana about six years ago, is employed as a fueller at the JFK Airport, and travelled here with his wife and daughter just under two weeks ago. They were due to return to the USA on September 6, but their stay has had to be cut short.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Davendra Kuralall who also suffered injuries to the head and neck on Sunday while swimming at another resort off the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, a short distance away from the Umbrella Creek, was yesterday taken to the St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital to have a MRI scan done.

His father, Jeetendra Kuralall, said the injured teen was complaining of pains in his head and neck, and had lost feelings in his right side