Copyright 7newsbelize
Courtney Menzies spoke with his mother today and has this story. The Armstrong family believes that they have been faced with injustice twice: first by the Western Regional Hospital and secondly by the police department. It began on October 17th, sometime after 3:00 in the morning when a motorcycle crashed between miles 52 and 53 on the George Price Highway. 25 year old Darrel Montero, who was riding pillion, was killed instantly. The driver, 25 year old Shawn Armstrong was severely injured and rushed to the hospital. Though he initially survived, his arm was amputated, but according to his mother and the doctors at La Loma Luz, it didn't have to be. Jennylyn Armstrong, Mother of Shawn Armstrong Jr "There was no doctor telling us anything like we need to get him out of here. He spent almost 16 hours in Belmopan at Western Regional. I personally think that when they saw like in the evening around 6/7 when they realized how bad his arm was and they couldn't do anything, they told us, if you guys want to self discharge him, you can. So that's what we did, they even provided us with an ambulance to take him." "When the doctor checked his arm, he said, his arm is dead, there's nothing we can do about it, we have to amputate it." It was a huge blow for this cowboy who loved nothing more than to ride horses. But he still had hope he could continue living his dream. However, Armstrong was diabetic and at first, the doctor suggested dialysis. But the first attempt didn't work - the catheter couldn't enter his body properly. The doctor then told the family dialysis was not needed. But then on Saturday, for reasons the family can't understand, they attempted to provide the dialysis again. Jennylyn Armstrong, Mother of Shawn Armstrong Jr "He was fine up to Saturday morning. He talked to his dad after 11, he was asking about the barbecue sale everything, and that was the only day that we were not there with him." "The doctor, all of them have our numbers. There were at least ten of us there everyday and not one of them called and said we're going to do this on him. So they took, they made the decision about 10:00 in the morning, they didn't tell us anything. So about 3 in the afternoon was when we found out, his girlfriend asked them what are you guys doing, cause she saw them taking stuff in and they said we're going to do the dialysis so she hurry called us and we started to pack up and said we're heading up there now and before we could reach, we found out that he had passed." He apparently suffered a seizure during the process, which turned out to be fatal. For the police department, this is a tragic accident - another motorcycle that lost control on the road. But the family insists that this is no accident - it's a double murder. According to Armstrong's mother, he went to La Cabanas Nightclub, where he met Montero. Armstrong told her that the incident stemmed from there. Jennylyn Armstrong, Mother of Shawn Armstrong Jr "The guy Montero and the other guy who allegedly hit them, they supposed to have had some beef and he used the word that they were "pree-ing" I don't know if that's a word young people use, they were "pree-ing" on the same girl at Cabanas, trying to impress her and sending drinks for the girl." "So they left and by the time he reached around Good Living Ranch, he saw the vehicle starting to speed behind them. So he looked back, he told me what kind of vehicle, the color, everything and even the guy looked back and said somebody is coming. So he picked up speed and right there before Young Gyal area, he just felt a bang, he got hit, and the next thing he remembered was waking up in the emergency room." Armstrong maintained up to his death that they were pursued and hit by the vehicle. And though the police have declared it an RTA, the family isn't giving up. Jennylyn Armstrong, Mother of Shawn Armstrong Jr "The police need to do their investigation. If you have too much on your hands, do your investigation, go around, Belize is small, people talk, there's videos out there. I mean if we could get videos, you could get the videos and we could go from there. You start from Cabana, there's cameras along the highway. We have footage of the vehicle behind them so how do you make that? I didn't see it, but I heard there is one out there from someone who actually saw them washing the vehicle, the bumper, trying to change the bumper because they have to wash the vehicle because there was blood because my son actually got hit." And the community is behind them since Armstrong was a well known and beloved cowboy. Jennylyn Armstrong, Mother of Shawn Armstrong Jr "Everybody loved him. He was such a mannerly person. He called everybody miss, mister, if he would come here right now that would be it. Never disrespected me in his life. Like I tell everybody, I didn't physically give birth to him, he came into my life like at age 4 and I was his mom. He has his mom, she's taking it really hard, she's in the US, but he has been with me from 4 years old and I have loved him the same way as I do my two girls." "He was a cowboy at heart, he loved that. From he was a small child like 8 he wanted to get on the bull. So he rode every agriculture show he's out there, Shawn Armstrong Jr. he participates, sometimes I tell him, man, you will make me broke because wants to participate in everything, calf roping, pole bending, barrel race and every time he does good. These are only some of his trophies." "He was loved, everybody loved him. And he will be greatly missed." Armstrong's infant son passed away last year. He leaves behind a 5 month old daughter. We reached out to the Ministry of Health for comment and the director of hospital services, Dr Polanco explained that they are aware of the complaint and they are investigating. We also reached out to La Loma Luz Hospital but up to news time, we haven't received a comment.
