MV Barima survivor Nicholas Craig has alleged that survivors of the deadly maritime disaster were discharged without receiving any form of psychological evaluation or counselling, despite enduring a traumatic overnight ordeal at sea.
Speaking during a live interview with the Leader of the Opposition on Thursday evening, Craig recounted the hours following his rescue and described what he believes was an inadequate response to the emotional and medical needs of survivors.
Craig said he has been unable to sleep or eat since surviving the tragedy.
“Since this ordeal, I ain’t sleep. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I drink water, yeah, I drink beverages,” he said.
He explained that the emotional distress became so overwhelming that he sought help at the Georgetown Public Hospital on his own.
“I said, let me go to Georgetown Hospital. I got to find somebody to talk to. I got to find somebody to figure what’s happening with me,” Craig recalled.
However, he said that after explaining to a nurse that he had survived the MV Barima tragedy and was struggling mentally, he was dismissed.
“I said, ‘Miss, I think something’s wrong with me. I ain’t fit up.’… I told her I was on this steamer accident the other day and I can’t eat. She told me, ‘Well, that don’t got nothing to do with here. Go along somewhere else.’”
Turning to the immediate aftermath of the rescue, Craig said survivors were first taken to the mouth of Charity, where Coast Guard personnel and private boats had gathered to assist.
According to Craig, those with injuries were transported to the hospital, where medical staff initially informed them they would remain overnight for observation.
“They told me, ‘We’re going to keep y’all here for the night… make sure you get cast over. Y’all going to stay here for observation.’”
He said that plan suddenly changed after what appeared to be a flurry of activity among officials.
“All of a sudden you see one set of commotion… Next thing you know is, ‘No, we’re not going to keep y’all here for the night.’”
Craig, who suffered a broken arm during the sinking, said he was instead taken elsewhere to have a cast applied before being told survivors could return home if they wished.
“They started saying, ‘Who need to go home? We’re going to send y’all home.’”
Craig also questioned the manner in which information was collected from survivors before they were discharged. He said that officials recorded only their names and dates of birth, but did not request contact numbers or other means of communication.
According to Craig, when he asked how survivors would be contacted without their phone numbers being taken, he was told not to worry.
“They only took our names and date of birth. I asked them, ‘How all y’all going to get in contact with us if y’all don’t got no number?’ They told me, ‘Don’t worry about that, we’ll get in touch with y’all.’”
Craig said the response left him confused and further reinforced his concerns about how survivors were handled in the aftermath of the tragedy.
He questioned the decision, noting that many survivors had lost everything in the sinking.
“Me personally, I have no clothes. Everything is wet. They had cut my shirt off at the hospital. Somebody had to go into their car and bring me a shirt.”
Craig further stated that, to his knowledge, survivors were not offered any form of psychological assessment or trauma counselling before being discharged.
When asked whether he had been evaluated by a psychologist, he replied simply, “No, I didn’t see nobody.”
He also criticised the medical treatment he received for his fractured arm, saying the cast applied after the rescue was poorly fitted and had to be replaced after he returned to Georgetown.
“The way they put this cast on… it couldn’t breathe. Even the people at the hospital said, ‘Go take that off,’ and they put a new one on.”
Craig’s account adds to growing concerns raised by survivors regarding the post-rescue care provided in the aftermath of the MV Barima disaster, particularly with respect to mental health support for those who endured the traumatic sinking.
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