Roshane Johnson reflects on his near-death experience. - photo by Paul Williams

Paul H. Williams, Gleaner Writer

One day in April, last year, at about 1:00 p.m. Roshane Johnson is on his verandah along Miracle Close, off the Gordon Town main road, St. Andrew, minding his own business. Along comes a barefooted elderly woman, who expresses an interest in the breadfruits on a tree in his yard. He'd never climbed that tree, but he decides to give her a few, because of the piteous state she is in.

He puts on his boots, because he's never climbed a tree without wearing shoes. The woman asks him whether someone can climb a tree in shoes. He ignores her. An elderly man comes along with a long heavy stick, apparently just cut. Up went Roshane into the tree, demonstrating great agility and strength. He stands on a low branch. The elderly man pushes the stick up to him; he takes it.

The breadfruit on the branches above him are too young. He doesn't lik not afraid of them, but doesn't like them. He has doubts about going farther. But, the woman is pointing to some bigger fruits above him. He proceedsup the tree with the stick in hand.

He finds a branch to stand on and begins to wring three breadfruits from their stem. He's twisting them with all his might; they break free and bring down the end of the stick, which falls towards the ground with the breadfruits. Roshane's end is still in his hand. He looks down and he sees JPS high-tension wires and the green stick resting on them.

Couldn't talk

He says, "After that, I couldn't talk, they said I screamed out, I have no recollection of that. I could not move my hands, feet, nothing at all. I was fixed, can't move, can't do anything at all." Then, the events of his life start to flash before his eyes. "One heap a flashes, whole heap a flashes, a see my parents, I see school - prep school, high school, places I've been, I just a see everything one time. They make no sense at all; they were in no particular order "I see people, places, downtown, Spaldings (Clarendon), just a see everything one time, " he recalls.

All around him starts to get bright and he says to himself, "This is it and mi done fah, and then my mind just go blank, just fade out, everything, all of the pictures just go away, and mi just see the place like kinda get bright, and" the branch on which he's standing gives way, having been burnt by the electricity that's going through his body" and I felt myself going back(wards). I felt the first hit (on branch) ."

He's falling, falling, falling, bouncing from branch to branch. There's a deep trench near the tree. He falls between the tree and it. Yet, he slides into it, jumps back out, and lies beside it. The old woman asks him whether he is OK. He says yes and she continues to search for the fallen breadfruits.

Roshane finds himself in the house, but does not know how he gets there. Suddenly, he starts to remember everything. He holds his forehead. "When I started to touch it the entire head started to pain me, and then all my joints, all my muscles started to give way, weak, weak, weak." He looks into his left palm, the one that held the stick. It is parched and full of blood. He's terrified.

A horrible discomfort

Somebody calls a taxi, and he's on his way to the hospital. It's just down the road, but it's a long road. His mind is a bag of nothingness; he cannot "think straight" and his body is going through "a horrible discomfort." He's now at the University Hospital of the West Indies, in the accident and emergency unit. People gather around. He's "completely dehydrated" and is promptly admitted. His world is now upside down.

Agonising stay

The stay in the hospital is agonising. He's afraid. The thought of death keeps popping up in his mind. He says, "All my mind was on was death and not being able, even if I should recover, not being able to fully recover and function as I used to." He tries to study, but he cannot focus. Nothing makes sense. The other patients around him seem to be disappearing, one by one. Where are they? What's happening to them. Are they dying? And the stench, the one that perfumes the air around him. It's coming from his own body. He smells like a burnt animal, and it lingers. The ECG machine beeps every time he thinks about the incident, as his heart rate increases. After the third day, he's released, and he's happy.

He's back home, trying to come to terms with what's happening to him. Every aspect of his life is affected. He's bed-ridden, and still worries about not being fully recovered, being paralysed. He cannot walk, and his legs are weak, arms are painful, there's much headache. The stench is still coming from his body. He sees the breadfruit tree through a window, a constant reminder of his fall.

Fell before

But that wasn't Roshane's first fall. He disobeyed his parents once before and climbed an apple tree. Several branches were torn down as he fell from that tree. One Sabbath, he and some friends hitched a ride in the back of a pick-up. As the van careened around a corner it threw some of them, including Roshane, off. There was another close shave when he stood on a rotten apple tree limb, and almost fell.

Then, when he came to The Gleaner Company to tell his story, he went to the East Street gate to enquire how to get in. He was directed to the North street entrance. Minutes later in the interview, there were three muffled explosions coming from East Street. The interview was interrupted; there was an accident. A young driver had bumped into a pothole near The Gleaner's East Street gate, broke a utility pole into two, swept two men off their feet, and slammed into a parked Gleaner truck.

Now, after more than a year since the accident, Roshane has learnt much from this near-fatal experience, and will continue to help people. However, he won't be climbing any more breadfruit trees. He gives thanks to God every day as he believes what happened to him was perhaps a miracle.

He would like to thank his mother, a female friend of his named Phebeena, Dr. Forrester at the University Hospital of the West Indies, and all his friends and acquaintances who rallied around him.

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com