HERO DOCTOR

“I really wasn’t expecting all of this,” Dr Ricard Shane Bennett admitted yesterday after being conferred with the Badge of Honour for Gallantry at King’s House.

“When I received the call from the Office of the Prime Minister telling me that I got an award, I thought it was a prank call,” he chuckled.

The award, though, was most deserving, and was presented on the most fitting day — National Heroes Day — at the annual Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards, because the act that led to Dr Bennett being celebrated at the official residence of the Queen’s representative was indeed heroic.

It was an ordinary night in July 2014 for Dr Bennett. He thought he would have retired without event, as he had on any other night at his home in St Ann.

But the blood-curdling screams of a neighbour quickly dashed that notion, and the train of events that unfolded after rivals the best of thriller scripts.

“I was at my house and I heard him screaming for help,” Dr Bennett told the Jamaica Observer shortly after accepting his award.

“Initially, I didn’t realise that was what he was saying. When I recognised that that was what he was saying, I ran over there. I saw him on the ground in his own blood. He was in his yard behind the gate. I asked him what happened, and he told me that a person had stabbed him. I saw the [attacker] in the yard still, hysterical, saying yes, they had stabbed him,” he recounted.

Dr Bennett explained that the reason he was unable to initially determine what his neighbour was saying amidst the gurgling screams, was because he was being stabbed while calling out for help.

“He had about 10 stab wounds, and he also had a gaping wound to the back of his head because the person had tried to render him unconscious by hitting him in the head. During all of that, he was calling for help,” Dr Bennett said.

“I did a quick examination of him. The right side of his chest was not moving at all and there was a wound in the upper part of his chest on the right side. I did a quick examination and realised that his lung had collapsed. He was going into respiratory distress,” the doctor said.

“I immediately went for my car, put him in, and headed for the hospital. I had to keep my hand on the wound. He passed out about four or five times [and] I had to keep talking to him to keep him alert. He had lost a lot of blood, a whole lot of blood,” he recalled with a slight shake of the head.

The 25-minute drive was not to be without its own drama. Dr Bennett, blaring his horn to alert other motorists to the emergency so that he could freely navigate the roads, all while trying to keep his neighbour from bleeding out, came close to fighting for his own life as well.

“There came a taxi man who ran into the side of my car. We spun around in the road and then the car ended up in the middle of the intersection, mashed up, and I couldn’t drive it at that point,” he said.

The quick-thinking medical professional, propelled by sheer adrenaline, had the presence of mind to get himself and his patient into a taxi.

“By this time he was out [unconscious] again. I put him in the car, left my car in the middle of the road, and went to the hospital,” he said.

On arrival at St Ann’s Bay Hospital he got the man onto a stretcher and wheeled him into the Accident and Emergency Department.

“I really couldn’t stop and explain to the doctors who were working what was going on. I pushed him into the minor ops room, and in there we started resuscitation, started him on IV, put in a chest tube, and that’s when the rest of doctors started coming in. In about 15 minutes he became alert again,” Dr Bennett said.

The neighbour, with whom he had a good relationship even before that fateful night, has since recovered from his life-threatening injuries.

The doctor, who has been practising for the past eight years, said he was blown away by the national recognition for his actions that night.

“I feel very humbled by this award. I think everybody aspires to be honoured by their country. I feel very privileged to be one of those who are recognised. When I did it, I really wasn’t expecting all of this,” he said.

His hope, he said, is that he has inspired more Jamaicans to discard the culture of turning a blind eye.

“We need to move from the way of thinking where it’s not my business, so I’m not going to get involved. We need to help people who are in need. At some point everyone needs help. I hope I have inspired others in the Jamaican populace to help and just to try to make this country a better place. If you see someone in need, just help,” he implored.