Heartless - People take photos of dying teen instead of helping

The brother of Triston Graham, the 17-year-old Lennon High School student who collapsed and died in May Pen, Clarendon, on Monday afternoon is saddened by allegations that his sibling did not receive assistance immediately.

Triston's family said he was diagnosed with a heart condition almost a decade ago, but had not fallen ill since. Delmar Douglas, Triston's older brother, was overcome with grief at the family's home in Trumpet Tree, Alexandria, Clarendon.

"They said he grabbed his chest and fell and said 'Help!' and nobody was there to help him. Everybody a take pictures and a video before them assist my brother," bemoaned Douglas, who is a member of the Jamaica Defence Force. "To know I'm here every day working hard just to keep and protect this country, and to know my brother needed assistance to get the hospital and they were videoing ... they didn't help."

Traumatising feeling

He added "This is the most horrible feeling anyone could ever feel. It's a traumatising feeling; something you don't know how you're going to recover from. He was not only my brother, but also my best friend," said Douglas. Triston's father, Maurice Graham, had few words when he spoke with THE STAR yesterday.

"Right now a father a bury son, me think a would a son bury father," he said. Recalling the dreadful call that bore the tragic news, he said, "Me deh a work and hear say him drop down, but by time him reach hospital him dead. Me a say, 'Dead? No sah!' By the time me reach, me see him in a car back lie down." Graham described his son as a genuine and loyal individual who was never entangled in any kind of mischief.

Ainsworth Kelly, guidance counsellor at Lennon High School, who cried as he spoke of the incident, said it was alleged that Triston was on the ground for about 20 minutes before anybody assisted.

"The students who were there with him called me on three occasions to say 'Sir, nobody is picking up Triston'," he said.

"It is alleged that a taxi man had to be paid $500 before he rendered any assistance, and at a time when we are celebrating Child Month, when did we get here where a child can be on the ground suffering and adults just walk by?" questioned Kelly. Triston was scheduled to sit six Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate subjects in the upcoming external examinations.

His social studies teacher, Tanesha Bonnick, said "He is always saying, 'Miss, I'm going to pass your subject with either a grade one or grade two'. When I saw the message [about his passing], I had to sit down ... I couldn't even speak," she said. Principal of Lennon High School, Frederick Lattray, said Triston was a disciplined, respectful, and well-rounded student.