Sascha Wil­son

Vet­er­an pan­man Austin "Wire" Mil­ton is re­cu­per­at­ing at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal af­ter top­pling off a wreck­er on Car­ni­val Mon­day night. The leader of the San Fer­nan­do-based Fon­claire Steel­band broke his right leg in two places. Speak­ing on his cell­phone from his hos­pi­tal bed yes­ter­day, Mil­ton was in good spir­its. "My new ad­dress is Ward 4, Suite Three of the New Wing of the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal," he joked.

Re­call­ing the in­ci­dent, he said around 10.40 pm, he was in the wreck­er pulling the trail­er trans­port­ing his band. He said they turned on­to Hob­son Street af­ter hav­ing left the Bomb Com­pe­ti­tion on Carib Street: "We were not mov­ing fast be­cause peo­ple were chip­ping in the band." He said he de­cid­ed to come off the wreck­er to make arrange­ments for the mem­bers to get re­fresh­ments at Seon's Bar. "While I was com­ing off, I mis­step in some loose soft sand. I lost bal­ance and drop on the ground and all I hear was pacs. I couldn't move and I was re­al pain."

Mem­bers came to his as­sis­tance and he was whisked away to the hos­pi­tal by the Fire Ser­vice am­bu­lance. He that said last Thurs­day, a piece of steel was sur­gi­cal­ly placed in his leg. Prais­ing the med­ical staff for the treat­ment he re­ceived thus far, Mil­ton said, "Here like in­ter­na­tion­al hos­pi­tal stan­dards. I must con­grat­u­late the past Gov­ern­ment for giv­ing us some­thing like this."

With the steady flow of vis­i­tors and phone calls, he said de­pres­sion was the fur­thest thing from his mind. He said the doc­tors told him how long he spends in the hos­pi­tal would de­pend on how well he re­cov­ers.