THREE DAYS TO LIVE - Burn victim’s mother recalls doctors’ grim prediction

Lolleta Scarlett, the mother of Nicola Clarke, the Hanover woman who was set on fire allegedly by her boyfriend on May 19, said her daughter was given only three days to live by doctors at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH).

But this was not to be so, as Clarke who is burnt beyond recognition, was flown out of the island on Thursday afternoon to a medical institution in the US, where she will be treated for her severe burns. Scarlett was in tears as she watched her daughter being wheeled from the ward of the CRH by a nursing team from the US, into the waiting ambulance which transported her to Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

"Thank you, God. Thank you, God," the elderly woman muttered, as she raised her hands to the heavens. "Them say they do not have the resources here to take care of her, so she will have to go overseas so that she can live, otherwise she is not going to live." Scarlett said that when she got the grim prediction from the doctors "mi just seh in the name of Jesus she not gonna die".

"Then now God just work it out that wi meet that nice young man, (Stephen Josephs, project manager at the non-profit organisation Sanmerna Foundation) who volunteered that he would help her, and that's where it start from," she said. "I feel very good right now, a can't even explain how I feel because even this morning I was crying, an mi daughter seh 'Mommy don't cry, just hold the faith, and believe in God', and a seh all right."

The full cost is expected to run over US$1 million, and was made possible by the Sanmerna Foundation. Clarke was scheduled to fly from the airport by Trinity Air Ambulance at noon, but the flight plan was delayed. The plane eventually took off shortly after 4:30 p.m., heading to Augusta, Georgia, where Clarke will be received at the JMS Burn Center at Doctors Hospital.

Robert Whyte, director of Sanmerna Foundation, said that they were so hurt by the reports of the incident, that they had to reach out to the family.

Action paid off

"When we saw the article, we jumped into action, and we can say today that action that we jumped into paid off," Whyte stated. "Today Nicole is on her way to the United States for treatment, to begin her phase two of treatment." He also appealed to men to stop the vicious attacks on women.

"I am pleading with all the men out there who believe that this attack on women is the way to solve a domestic problem, to please stop this act, and find other ways to solve your problems, because it is incidents such as these why Nicola is here today," Whyte said.

Reports are that Clarke, who operates a car wash and bar, got involved in an argument with her boyfriend, who doused her and her business place with gasolene and then set both on fire.

Clarke managed to run from the burning building and was rushed to the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover, where she was admitted in critical condition and later transferred to CRH.

The boyfriend was later apprehended by the police in Westmoreland.