By Sue-Ann Wayow
“GO for them, go for them, send back somebody in there!”
Christopher Boodram, the sole survivor of the accident at Paria’s Berth #6 on February 25 repeatedly shouted those words to Health Safety and Environmental (HSE) technician Andrew Dopson the moment he was rescued in the hope that his four colleagues could have also been saved.
Dopson on Wednesday gave evidence at the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) at Tower D, International Waterfront Centre in Port-of-Spain.
Dopson is employed by Kenson Operation Ltd assigned to Paria since 2019.
He told Chairman of the Commission Jerome Lynch, KC, that he was present on the berth when Boodram came out of the pipeline. He also said there were about five people on the berth, about the same number in LMCS’s pirogue and there were divers in the water.
Dopson who has both first aid and emergency medical experience scanned Boodram before accompanying him on a Paria launch –Wahoo to hand him over to medical staff at the landing area.
He informed the staff that Boodram sustained an injury to one of his ankles and there was a lot of trauma to his body.
Boodram was also covered in oil and Dopson assisted in cleaning him up.
Lynch said Boodram at the time was talking, conscious and lucid, all to which Dopson agreed to.
Lynch then asked, “Did you or anyone to your knowledge seek to obtain from him such information that he might have been able to give about the conditions in the pipeline and his colleagues?”
Dopson replied, “I would not know what happened when I handed him over to the staff but on our journey to the launch landing from Berth #6, he would have informed me that everybody in the pipe was still alive.”
Lynch then asked for a pause and for further clarification so that he could have the information on a timescale.
He said, “From the moment you were able to attend to him (yes) as a medic (yes) to the point in time when you handed him over to the ambulance, what sort of period are we talking about?”
Dopson said, “ It could have been between eight to ten minutes, that’s the normal time to reach.”
Lynch asked if the Coast Guard was present at that time to which Dopson said he believed so.
During the few minutes Dopson was with Boodram in transit, he said Boodram told him he could not account for Rishi Nagassar whom he referred to as “Blacks”, Fyzal Kurban was right behind him in the pipe and he could not give specifics.
Dopson said, “I believe he was more concerned about getting the point that we should go back in there.”
Although obviously distressed, Dopson said he believed the only thing Boodram did not know at the time of being rescued was the actual time of day.
He asked where he was taken and Dopson told him the San Fernando General Hospital might have been the best place and it was then that Boodram gave Dopson his wife’s contact number who was also a nurse at the hospital.
Lynch asked if Dopson revealed to Boodram how much time he was missing to which Dopson said yes and Lynch further asked if Boodram revealed any expressions from gaining that information.
Dopson said, “The only expression I was seeing from him was a lot of pain. There was a lot of bawling.. pain, distress, frustration.”
“When you say frustration, frustration with what, did he express that?” Lynch asked.
Dopson replied, “Well I believe if somebody is telling you the same thing over and over and you not really giving them any reaction, they tend to get frustrated so… He keep on saying “Go for them, go for them, send back somebody in there. He kept saying that on and on.”
There was no mention of air pockets in the pipe by Boodram at that point.
Boodram, the only eyewitness to what actually occurred inside the pipeline was the first person to testify in the CoE last month.
