Rel­a­tives of Freeport grand­fa­ther Han­iff Ali were look­ing for­ward to plan­ning a cel­e­bra­tion for his 59th birth­day next week. In­stead, they are mak­ing prepa­ra­tions for his fu­ner­al.Ali, of Cal­cut­ta No 1, Freeport, died from dengue haem­or­rhag­ic fever around 1.35 am yes­ter­day at the In­ten­sive Care Unit (ICU) of the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where he had been ward­ed since last Tues­day.When the T&T Guardian vis­it­ed Ali's home yes­ter­day, rel­a­tives were still in shock and try­ing to come to terms with his death.

His daugh­ter Krista, 23, said she was ex­pect­ing her fa­ther to come home this week when they would have planned his birth­day par­ty for Au­gust 28.When the T&T Guardian ar­rived yes­ter­day, rel­a­tives were re­mov­ing a "Hap­py Birth­day" ban­ner from their front porch, which they had left hang­ing up in an­tic­i­pa­tion of Ali's birth­day cel­e­bra­tions on his re­turn.The ban­ner, they said, had been there since they held a birth­day par­ty ear­li­er in the month for Ali's grand­daugh­ter Ce­line, who turned eight.

Krista said her fa­ther was di­ag­nosed with dengue last Sat­ur­day by their pri­vate doc­tor and was be­ing treat­ed with med­ica­tion and in­tra­venous (IV) drips. She said he was feel­ing bet­ter af­ter that ini­tial treat­ment.How­ev­er, she said her fa­ther, a Rev­enue Of­fi­cer IV at the In­land Rev­enue Of­fice, Ch­agua­nas, went to bed last Mon­day and woke up around 3 am bleed­ing.

"We called the am­bu­lance and they rushed him to Cou­va Hos­pi­tal, where he went in­to car­diac ar­rest. They rushed him to ICU and when he reached San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal he was un­sta­ble. They were un­able to stop the bleed­ing and they said his or­gans start­ed shut­ting down," she added.She said the doc­tors told her moth­er Judy that his heart had stopped and that he might have suf­fered brain dam­age. Nev­er­the­less, her fa­ther be­gan im­prov­ing last week, but "he could not move around."

"We were ex­pect­ing him to come home. He was get­ting re­al­ly good treat­ment in ICU. The doc­tors and nurs­es were sta­tioned there 24 hours and they did every­thing they could but the con­di­tion he was in, they could not do any­thing for him," she said.Krista said her fa­ther was hard-work­ing, a de­vote Mus­lim and a fam­i­ly man.Her sis­ter Josanne Roopchan, 30, said her fa­ther's death could have been avoid­ed if the area had been sprayed for mos­qui­toes. Her broth­er, Ran­dall, 21, was too dis­traught to speak.

Roopchan said when her fa­ther was di­ag­nosed with dengue, the In­sect Vec­tor Di­vi­sion came and sprayed their home, though no spray­ing was done in the area.A res­i­dent, who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, said a month ago a child in their area al­so con­tract­ed dengue and was treat­ed.Neigh­bours who were at the Alis' home to of­fer con­do­lences said they had com­plained to the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion about va­cant lots near­by and clogged drains which were breed­ing the dengue-car­ry­ing Aedes ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­to.

Yes­ter­day, chair­man of the cor­po­ra­tion, Dave Per­sad, ex­pressed his con­do­lences to the Ali fam­i­ly. He said he was sur­prised to learn about cas­es of dengue be­ing re­port­ed in the Freeport area, since the cor­po­ra­tion had un­der­tak­en a "very rig­or­ous" spray­ing pro­gramme.He promised to look in­to the com­plaints, adding he will have to in­quire why the re­ports of dengue are not looked in­to and dealt with. (RR)