Rookhia Kalloo
November 17 2018
Rookhia Kalloo, the eighty-six-year-old passenger who suffered a fractured skull following the crash-landing of a Fly Jamaica plane at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport last Friday, has died.
A family member confirmed to Stabroek News that the woman passed away at the Georgetown Public Hospital yesterday afternoon.
It was previously reported that Kalloo, who was initially admitted to the Woodlands Hospital on Monday, had suffered a skull fracture, which caused her brain to swell. It is suspected that she was hit on the head at the time of the crash landing.
Kalloo, her daughter, Lilawattie Persaud, and her granddaughter were among those aboard Fly Jamaica flight OJ 256, which had been en route to Toronto, Canada, when it experienced hydraulic issues, resulting in the pilot making an emergency landing.
Doctors at the Woodlands Hos-pital indicated to the family that there was nothing that could be done for Kalloo.
Due to the cost to continue to keep her at the private hospital, the family moved Kalloo to Georgetown Public Hospital, where she succumbed.
Persaud told this newspaper that her mother had been very hysterical after the accident but did not complain of having suffered any injuries. Hours after returning home from the airport, the daughter recalled seeing her mother being disoriented. After being questioned about her health, Kalloo told her daughter that she was not feeling well. As a result, a decision was made to take her to the Woodlands Hospital, where she was immediately admitted.
Since the accident, Persaud said her mother had lost the ability to speak and move on her own.
“She went to sleep but woke up different, the last time I heard my mother speak was on Sunday when I asked her if she was okay, but now she totally shut down… the doctors said that her brain is swollen and that it is shutting down and that there is nothing else they can do for her,” Persaud shared.
At the time of the accident, Kalloo, her daughter and granddaughter were returning to Canada after vacationing here for four weeks.