Woman collapses, dies while walking to bus stop - News

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Woman collapses, dies while walking to bus stop

BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter matthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, March 20, 2012

FIVE-MONTH-OLD Venessa was her usual bubbly self yesterday, playing in her father's, Vaughn Richards, hair as she sat on his lap.

But the infant's playful demeanour was in stark contrast to that of her father, whose face expressed pain as he informed relatives, over his cellular phone, about the sudden death of Venessa's mother, 25-year-old Kay-Anna Anderson.

Anderson was walking along Ken Hill Drive in Pembroke Hall, St Andrew, when she collapsed and died. She and her brother Sanjay Simms were on their way to a bus stop on Washington Boulevard. She had, only seconds before, given baby Venessa to Simms.

"We were walking along the roadway; she was following me to school to deal with some papers for my exams," recounted a frightened Simms.

With his hands on his head and leaning against a wall at the Boulevard Shopping Centre — a stone's throw from where Anderson collapsed — the trembling 18-year-old student of the St Andrew Technical High School stuttered as he recalled the horrifying incident.

"She said she wanted to use the bathroom and that was when she handed the baby to me and started to walk towards the Boulevard Shopping Centre," said Simms.

"As she walked away, she looked as if she was falling and that was when I called out to her and she fell to the ground.

"After she fell on the ground, she was gasping for breath; I tried to provide some support for her head, all the time calling out her name. She died in my hands," he added.

Yesterday, overcome by the tragedy, Richards — who has been left to care for two children — had to be rushed to get medical help.

"Me love me baby mother enuh. A last night me tell her how me love her and to just lose her like that, this can't be true," sobbed Richards.

Family members said that up until the time of her collapse, Anderson had shown no signs of ill health.

"She was always jovial, she was always smiling and because of that, once you are around her you will always feel happy," said Nicola Bryan, a long-time friend of Anderson.