Long road to recovery - 20-y-o unable to eat after motor vehicle mishap
Twenty-year-old Devante Ferron, who has schizophrenia, was hit by a car in his community in New Haven, Kingston, on June 26. The man was found unconscious, lying in the road in a pool of blood, some time after 10 a.m. by a neighbour, who ran to the family's home to tell them what happened. Since then, Ferron has been hospitalised and discharged. However, months later, he is still suffering from great pain.
"I wasn't there. It's a young man who run come and tell us that he got hit down. He said he saw him on his way out, and he left something. So, when he was coming back in to pick it up, he saw him laying down across the road," Natalie Walters, Ferron's mother, told THE STAR.
When Natalie and other family members ran down to the road, they saw Ferron in a very bad state, and they began to fear the worst.
Head injury
"When we go and look, we see him on the road on the asphalt. He was bleeding, and he got a head injury. So many things were going through my mind. I was wondering if him dead, and then I was even wondering if he was trying to hurt himself because of the schizophrenia," she recalled in a distraught tone.
Shortly after, the family found out that the driver who hit Ferron went and confessed to the Duhaney Park Police Station after police officers showed up on the scene.
"The driver went down by the station and tell them what happened. He told them that Devante walked out in the vehicle when he was approaching him. I'm glad the driver reported it to the police."
Walters said it has been a difficult journey since her son's accident. "I had to pay a lot of money for treatment. He was supposed to do a surgery on his head and I didn't have the money. They (doctors) said that he was bleeding in the head, but the day before he was discharged, he stopped the bleeding."
But the 20-year-old is still in a lot of pain. Walters says this has taken a toll on her, and the family at large.
"Now, him caa talk so good and him caa eat. He's only drinking. All of this is because of the accident. He suffered a lot and he's only 20-years-old. My doctor says I have high blood pressure. It's me alone ... I'm a single mother because his father died when he was seven years old. So, all of this is on me alone," Walters related.