13-year-old shooting victim takes risky journey
He has been fighting for his life at the K.H.M.H. ever since a gang of gunmen shot him in a hold-up attempt in Punta Gorda. Today, the thirteen year old victim departed on a risky airplane flight to Guatemala where his future hangs in the balance. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Shortly after 10:00 a.m., technicians from the Belize Emergency Response Team arrived at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital to transport thirteen-year-old Rodney Borland. It was an anxious and emotional time for parents Elizabeth and Dale Borland, who made the agonizing decision to send their son to Guatemala to receive further medical attention. According to the family, although the move was not recommended by the attending physician, they decided to take the chance because in their opinion, their son’s condition had not improved since he had been hospitalized.
Elizabeth Borland, Mother
“Right now, I don’t know what to say because it is a risk right now to be moving him up in the air. So at this point we are…I don’t know.”
Dale Borland, Father
“Well, like the doctor told us, it would be a risk but it depends on us. We decided to take the risk because it has been a week now, nothing, no improvement. We have not seen any improvement. So we decided to take that risk, me and my wife, just to see if we could get… I don’t know, I would say a better chance of recovering.”
Ten days ago, the teenager was shot in the back during an attempted robbery at the family’s store in Punta Gorda. The bullet, which is lodged in Borland’s lower back, went through the spine and left him paralyzed from the waist down. The shot also affected Borland’s lungs and he has been unable to breath without the help of a ventilator.
Elizabeth Borland
“His present condition is the same, just like when he entered the hospital. No development at all, but nothing worse. So when he reach the hospital in Guatemala, I guess they will observe everything and we might have to start on the lungs again, because if he is not breathing by himself, they can’t go into the spine.”
Emergency Medical Technician, Deon Wright, had to bag or manually pump oxygen into Borland’s lungs to help him breathe as he was carefully moved from K.H.M.H. post operative ward into the ambulance. At the Philip Goldson International Airport, a twin engine BERT air ambulance, piloted by Scott Salisbury, waited on the tarmac for its young patient. There, once again, the medical team cautiously lifted their patient from the emergency vehicle into the aircraft.
On board was Borland’s dad and E.M.T. Wright. It would take them forty-five minutes to reach Guatemala City. As the Borland family hopes for the best, three young men await trail for Borland’s shooting.
Elizabeth Borland
“Well, we are very proud and happy on what the police in Punta Gorda did. I do believe they moved very fast and we really appreciate what they did so far. And we hope that these boys when they go back for the case will get a just sentence because if they come out again they might do the same thing again.”
The Borlands are appealing for financial assistance to help pay the medical expenses that will be incurred. If you would like to help the family, you can deposit your donation into Belize Bank Punta Gorda branch, account number 5850. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
In connection with the shooting, seventeen year old Kennedy O’Campus has been charged with attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. Sixteen year old Gary Pratt has been charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, keeping an unlicensed firearm and four rounds of unlicensed ammunition and Seventeen Year old Dennis Trapp has been charged with conspiracy to commit robbery. While Trapp was granted bail, both O’Campus and Pratt remain on remand at the Hattieville Prison. The case has been adjourned until November fourteenth.
