Soldier hurt in `Blackie' siege back from Trinidad eye care
Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Lance Corporal Lennox Harvey returned home on Saturday last after receiving treatment in Trinidad and Tobago for a wound he sustained in the shoot-out at Eccles, East Bank Demerara, earlier this year in which bandit Linden 'Blackie' London was killed. Harvey, a member of the army's special forces, was admitted to the Seven Days Community Hospital on July 6, 2000, where he underwent corrective surgery to remove tissues from the region of the left eye socket to accommodate a prosthesis after losing the eye in the assault. A release from the army yesterday stated that the soldier following his discharge from the hospital, was examined by an ophthalmologist and then referred to an optometrist to have an impression done for the prosthesis. Now successfully fitted with the artificial eye, Harvey would be required to return to Trinidad in six months for a review and further assessment. Harvey, who was accompanied to Trinidad by his mother and Woman Staff Sergeant (W/SSGT), Joycelyn Maxwell-Pryce a staff Nurse/Widwife of the GDF's Medical Corps was initially scheduled to return home after a week in Trinidad. However, due to the sensitiveness of his condition and the need for continuous evaluation his stay was extended. His expenses during hospitalisation which included return airfares for him and his mother were borne by the Ministry of Health and the GDF. Harvey, as part of a joint Police-GDF force showed great courage and using stealth was able to enter the Toucan Guest House where London was holed up, forcing open the door to the room in which the bandit was hiding. It was then he was shot in the left eye following which he received treatment from a team of doctors who operated on him at the Public Hospital Georgetown. At that time his left eye was removed and corrective surgery done to his brain damaged as a result of the bullet wound.
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