Dwain Davis’ last days on this earth were very troubling for him, but it was with quiet dignity that Davis’ mother and father accepted his inevitable death, and upon the advice of Davis’ doctor, decided to pull the plug this morning from the respirator at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was being cared for after he had suffered a massive stroke on November 5, as he left the Magistrate’s Court.
Although he did not come to the public via the media to complain or to blame anyone, after the Belize City Council voted to terminate his service as Financial Director, Davis, a humble man, was a man who was living through incredible pressure. But despite that, he did not see it fit to “rat” on anyone at City Hall. Whatever he knew about the financial mess at City Hall and whoever was ultimately responsible, died with him this morning.
Already, there is speculation in some legal circles that Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers and the others from the Council’s Finance Department who were charged along with Davis for violating the City Council Regulations, will have an easy day in court, because of Davis’ untimely death. It has been reported, however, that the Director of Public Prosecutions, Cheryl-Lynn Branker-Taitt, has said that it would make little difference to her case.
Dwain Davis was a career public officer who had served in a number of important positions for over thirty years—rendering his service, his friends say, with honesty and integrity.
His sisters, Phyllis and Maxine Davis, who are senior public officers, said that they could not remember exactly when Dwain’s career began, but he started his work life at the Treasury Department in the early 1970s.
From the Treasury, Dwain moved to what was then the Belize Monetary Authority, the forerunner to the Belize Central Bank. He served as Director of Finance for a number of years at the Central Bank when it replaced the Monetary Authority.
Davis, the holder of a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Saint Thomas University, Florida, received a scholarship to do postgraduate studies in England from the Belize Central Bank. He obtained a Master’s degree in finance from Exeter University, UK.
Eleven days ago, Davis suffered a stroke that led to bleeding in his brainstem. When he entered the hospital, his prognosis was said to be grim.
This morning, according to his mother, Maud Davis and his father, Eyre Davis, after they had spoken to his doctor, Jorge Hidalgo, they decided to remove him from the ventilator that was keeping him alive.
Mrs. Davis said that about 9:55 this morning, Dwain died. He lived for about fifteen minutes after the ventilator was removed from him, she said.
“As soon as the ventilator was removed from him, his breathing stopped,” Mrs. Davis told Amandala from their family home on Euphrates Avenue.
On the morning when he suffered his stroke, Davis had just finished talking to some City Council employees in the vicinity of the Magistrate’s Court when he went into his vehicle. But someone observed that the vehicle had not moved from where it was parked, and when they went to check, they found Davis unconscious behind the wheel, and rushed him to the KHMH.
At the hospital, his doctor said that he had suffered “a hemorrhagic stroke due to a hypertensive crisis.”
Davis held the post of Financial Director at the Belize City Council for a little over three years.
According to his family, they will lay him to rest on Wednesday, November 18, after a funeral service at Wesley Methodist Church.
Dwain Davis is survived by one son, Dwain Davis, Jr.; his common-law wife, Cassandra Lino; his mother, Maud Davis; his father, Eyre Davis; sisters, Maxine and Phyllis Davis, and one brother, Derrick Davis.