Since childhood, East End resident Nathan Brooks has loved trucks and, as he got older, that love fuelled his career choice as a truck driver.
However, in a cruel twist of fate on 29 July, Brooks, 27, met with a tragic accident involving a truck which has left him fighting for his life in the critical care unit at George Town Hospital.
Brooks had been working on a dump truck around lunchtime on 29 July at the quarry in East End when he was crushed by the vehicle.
The severely injured Brooks spent two weeks in a coma and has only recently regained consciousness.
In the aftermath of the accident, friends and family have rallied around the High Rock, East End resident, launching a fundraising campaign to help send him overseas for medical treatment, which to date has raised almost US$5,000.
Nathan Panton, who is leading that campaign, says Brooks, who he described as a brother, needs all the help and prayers he can get.
“He’s a very caring, outgoing person who never, ever asks for anything in return. He just loves being there in everybody’s corner and wishes the best for everybody,” Panton told the Cayman Compass.
On Sunday Brooks will mark his 28th birthday.
He said Brooks, affectionately known by most as ‘Big Soup’, is well known for his love of trucks, cars and jet skis and would often be found either riding one of the three or fixing them.
Panton, who has known Brooks “donkey years now”, recalled how his friend earned his nickname, saying Brooks “loves to eat, and he always walked around with a big pot for [cooking] soup. That’s where he got that name.”
Chilling call
On the day of the accident, Panton said Brooks was trying to fix the dump truck when tragedy struck.
Panton said he remembered the “shocking moment like it was yesterday” when he got the call about his friend.
He said he and Brooks had just been making plans to hang out at Panton’s house that evening and he told him go ahead and get his food.
He said he had spoken to Brooks just 25 minutes before their mutual friend, emergency medical technician Stephen McLaughlin, alerted him to what had happened.
“I told him [Brooks] go run your load and be safe and I’ll be home. Then you come on my yard and we go and chill and do whatever we wanted to do on that day,” he recalled.
Those plans never materialised, and instead he hurried to the hospital to find his friend badly hurt.
Panton said when he got the chilling call from McLaughlin, who had responded to the scene of the accident, he was shook.
“When I rushed [to the hospital] and I saw him, he was just laying there, not able to really communicate with me other than just moving his hands. It was hurtful to see him like that,” he said shakily.
Panton said Brooks was so badly injured that McLaughlin initially didn’t recognise him when he arrived at the scene.
“He just worked on him and rushed him to the hospital. I can thank him for that, for making sure he got to the hospital in time that the doctors were able to take over.”
Brooks, Panton said, remains on life support and only recently started breathing on his own for short intervals, but still needs some assistance from machines.
Panton said his friend has little movement in his limbs at this time, but Brooks has been improving.
He added he knows Brooks is a fighter as he also earned the nickname ‘Hulk’ because of his strength.
He said family and friends are hopeful that, with the community’s support, Brooks can travel overseas to get the neurological surgeries he needs to regain his sensory abilities.
Panton said he is so grateful to all who have supported the fundraising effort and to those who will be donating.
Donations can be made through Go Get Funding and at the Credit Union in the name of Nathan Brooks, savings account 106443.
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A desperate tragedy which can be faced by anyone unless they are in Govt employ where overseas treatment is free to all.