Falling house seriously injures 10yr old girl

We reported Thursday night that a ten year old girl suffered serious injuries when her house toppled on her. The incident occurred at around five-thirty when the child’s mother, Bernadine Cattouse, and her husband were trying to elevate their Vernon Street house. News Five was on the scene shortly after the incident. According to Cattouse requests over a year ago to previous and present governments to hoist the house did not materialize. Their efforts turned disastrous when the house slipped off the makeshift base and landed on top of the little girl.

Bernadine Cattouse, Mother
“I was trying to raise it off the ground because it was sinking and it was dangerous for my children and me right. From the time they gave me this house they didn’t help me so I was trying to do it and. We had a big jack and we were putting that underneath the house and raising it and putting like little blocks and stuff to raise up the house. My gentleman was doing it and what happened, my little girl went inside because we had was to rip up the flooring to go under the house and she went under there and that’s where the house dropped and she was under there.”

Marion Ali
“Why did she go under?”

Bernadine Cattouse
“I don’t know the reason.”

Marion Ali
“You didn’t know she was there?”

Bernadine Cattouse
“No I didn’t know she was there.”

Marion Ali
“Was she helping with the movement or the raising of the house?”

Bernadine Cattouse
“No, she wasn’t because we wouldn’t send any of our child under there because it is dangerous right. She went in the house probably to get something and I don’t know if she went there purposely but we didn’t know she was under there. Because when the house dropped I was asking where is Carolyn, where is Carolyn and her sister told me “mommy she’s under the house. And we were trying to raise it up to get her out and we got her out, my gentleman, and we called the ambulance and they came and took her to the hospital. My gentleman told me that the house drop on her shoulder or some part of her head or some spot.”

Marion Ali
“So when you finally managed to get her out what was she saying, if anything at all?”

Bernadine Cattouse
“I didn’t know because I wasn’t around to see all that because I was traumatised. I couldn’t take it so I race on the other side of the street. I was traumatised so I don’t know.”

Marion Ali
“You’ve seen her since she’s been to the hospital…”

Bernadine Cattouse
“Yes, I did. I spoke with the doctor and the doctor told me that she is in and out of consciousness and she is in serious condition and they’re going to take her to take a CAT scan and after that they will tell me the rest.”

But luckily for ten year old Carolyn, her condition is not as grave as it had initially appeared. There were no permanent damages to her brain and by this morning she was awake and talking. While her family is grateful for the turn of events, they are asking for help.

Bernadine Cattouse
“I need my house to move on my land and put on the posts that they belong because if you can see the post is right there that they give me. So that’s the post that my house should go on but it’s not on the post. They just lay the post down flat and they put the house on it.”

If you are able to help Bernadine Cattouse and her family you can call 622-6184 and ask for her oldest daughter, Randeen Ford. Earlier this year Cattouse lost her seventeen year old daughter, Michelle, to gun warfare between members of rival gangs. That shooting spree on February ninth started at the now defunct Putt-Putt Bar on Newtown Barracks and ended on the Belcan Bridge where one of the gang members fired a barrage of bullets at a group of friends who were heading home. Cattouse was in the group and was killed.