By Shermain Bique-Charles
The 16-year-old Ottos boy who was severely beaten by three boys on April 29 is showing slow signs of recovery after being in a comatose state for several days.
Jerkeem Jackson is responding to his name and is very alert, according to his mother Karima Joseph who spoke to Observer yesterday.
“I went up to see him today and he is moving his hands and moving his eyes and I asked him if he could see me. He nodded his head so this is good news,” Joseph said.
Jackson’s head was smashed with a huge piece of concrete on All Saints Road, according to reports from his family, and as a result he suffered a cracked skull and bleeding to the brain.
After several emergency surgeries, young Jackson has been seemingly spared the worst.
“Doctors are saying that my son will live. He is still under observation and in their care because he isn’t fully recovered but he is showing slow signs,” Joseph said.
She continued that the family could not have gotten through the past couple of weeks without the support of relatives, friends and members of the public.
“I want to thank the public. A lot of people have been reaching out to me from different groups, the ministers, people who I have never met before. They have been reaching out to me. They have been praying for us. I want to tell them thank you so much,” she added.
Jackson is still breathing on a ventilator and remains in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. He is a former Jennings Secondary School student who left to learn specialised plumbing at the Antigua and Barbuda Institute of Continuing Education.
Two suspects were previously taken into custody and questioned. They were subsequently released pending further investigations, according to police spokesperson Inspector Frankie Thomas.