Twenty-nine-year-old Euphemie Adams remained hospitalized yesterday after being airlifted to Nassau around 4 a.m. Tuesday as a result of a traffic accident at the Hole-in-the-Wall junction 12 miles from Sandy Point, where she resides, on the Great Abaco Highway between 12:15 and one o’clock that morning.
A vacationing Nurse Estelle Pinder of Sandy Point, who was called to the scene of the accident, said she found Ms. Adams lying face down at the roadside, apparently suffering from a fractured left thighbone, multiple lacerations to her upper right arm and a haematoma on her forehead. Nurse Pinder said she concluded Ms. Adams needed to be admitted to the Princess Margaret Hospital, and drove her to the Marsh Harbour government clinic, where she was seen by the doctor before being flown out by charter plane. She said Ms. Adams complained of nausea, but never vomited and never lost consciousness during the time she attended her, including up until her departure for Nassau.
Nurse Pinder, who was assisted by Nurse Melvania Munnings, said that although there is also a doctor at the clinic in Sandy Point, she chose the much farther Marsh Harbour facility because the chances for getting an emergency charter were much better there. She said in her experience, they would have had to wait until after daylight for a flight out of Sandy Point.
According to Sgt. Ernest Rahming, officer in charge of Sandy Point, Ms. Adams was driving home alone from the Marsh Harbour area in a rented Plymouth Neon when she apparently lost control of the vehicle on the sharp bend. He said the automobile was upside down about 100 feet in the bushes on the south side of the road when the police arrived.
Sgt. Rahming said Ms. Adams was assisted from her vehicle by Marcus Davis of Crossing Rocks, who was also on his way to Sandy Point. He said other passers-by carried word of the accident into the settlement. He said the police, who have not been able to speak to Ms. Adams, are still investigating the accident.
A family friend of Ms. Adams in Sandy Point told The Freeport News by telephone that she had received word that Ms. Adams was still in intensive care and had been in the operating theatre yesterday morning.
The 57-mile road from Marsh Harbour to Sandy Point is largely unlit and mostly deserted at night. Although there are cat’s eyes to identify sharp curves like the Sandy Point οΎ— Hole-in-the-Wall junction where the accident occurred, the contours of the highway can be confusing in the dark. The cellular service along that stretch of road is interrupted, and there are no emergency telephones or service stations along the route. There is also no ambulance service in the south.
By RICHARD E. FAWKES, Freeport News Reporter
