Five of the 19 persons injured when a fragmentation grenade went off in the Stabroek Market Square on Wednesday, killing one man, remained warded at the Georgetown Public Hospital yesterday, while the others were treated and sent home.

But of those sent home, at least one person had, by yesterday morning returned to hospital for further treatment. Sandra Harrilall, 33, of 81 Diamond Housing Scheme, treated at the institution on Wednesday and sent home, had to return  yesterday after her condition worsened. Harilall, a mother of three and an employee of A.Gafoor and Sons on the East Bank Demerara, said that fragments of the grenade had stuck in her body.

Meanwhile, those still hospitalised are Victorine Campbell, 76, of 19 New Hope, East Bank Demerara, who suffered injury to her right shoulder;  Esther Sutherland, 55, of 44 Palm Street, Werk-en-Rust, with two punctures in her neck; Egbert Austin 40, of 74 Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, with a puncture to the lower abdomen; Trefa Hinds, 31, of Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, who suffered injury to his right eye and an injured jaw;  and Clayronn Alleyne, 30, of 318 Kuru-Kuru, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, a Timehri bus conductor who was injured in the right eye by a fragment from the grenade.

Injured:   Esther  Sutherland

And recounting the gruelling experience, Sutherland recalls having had to be taken to hospital on a fire truck.
Sutherland said she had just left the Market Square and was heading to the East Bank bus  park when she heard a loud explosion, and in an instant felt her skin begin to burn and her clothes wet.  She was bleeding.
“I began stumbling and falling and tried to hold on to someone in front of me, but he too was falling to the ground”.  She collapsed and was placed in the fire tender with two other injured persons.
Others relating similar experiences included 76 year-old Victorine Campbell, who said that she had just finished shopping and was leaving the Market Square and heard the loud explosion, after which her skin began to burn. “Then I realised that I was struck on the shoulder and moved towards a bench nearby and sat down,”   she related.She does not remember exactly what happened after that, but later found herself in hospital.
Clayronn Alleyne, a Timehri minibus conductor said he was standing at the bus park when he was struck in the eye by a fragment.  He was rushed to theatre where emergency surgery was performed on his right eye.  His condition is stable.

Sandra Harrilall displays the punctures in her right arm

Meanwhile, Sandra Harrilall had just finished buying a phone card from a vendor whose stand is near the point of the explosion. As she was heading towards the Grove bus park, her back was turned towards the phone card shack, causing her to bear the brunt of the injuries on her lower back and at the back of her hands and legs.   Esther is thanking God that when the grenade exploded she was leaving the phone card vendor and not approaching the shack, or her face might have been disfigured.