TRAGEDY struck at Splashmin’s Fun Park yesterday, when a 14-year old boy, on an outing with family and friends, ventured into the waters of the Madewini Creek, encountered difficulty and perished. Dead is Kevin Ram, 14, of Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo. With him was his friend Paramdav Nanan, 15, who also went down, but was rescued and given artificial respiration, before being taken to the Diamond Regional Hospital.
Nanan survived, but Ram was pronounced dead at the Diamond Hospital. After being stabilised at the Diamond Regional Hospital, Nanan was transferred to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Unit of the GPHC, where he was given saline and late last night remained in a stable condition.
The survivor’s distraught  father, Rakesh Nanan, an employee of Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL), told the Guyana Chronicle that his employers had organised a family fun day at the park and the two boys had been taken along.
Nanan and his wife  said that during the course of the afternoon, they, along with others went on a tour of the eco-resort across the Madewini River at Splashmin’s and were abysmally unaware that something had gone wrong until the boat they were in was drawing near to shore.
Nanan said that as they approached the beach, they saw people running helter skelter and there was a great commotion. They became curious, and on getting out learnt that two boys had gone under water.
Public spirited persons jumped into the water after the children and managed to bring them up.  Cardio-Pulmonary Respiration (CPR) or artificial respiration was done on both teens, but Kevin later died.
The grieving parents recalled that as they were leaving to travel to the Eco Resort, they left the two boys to oversee their bags and lunch baskets, and cautioned them not to venture off. However, attracted to the water, soon after their parents left, the boys decided to take a dip and ran into difficulty.
Police are investigating.