by Kristen Ku

SANTA CLARA VILLAGE, Corozal District, Wed. May 29, 2024

A man tragically lost his life in an electrocution incident on a construction site in Santa Clara Village on Monday afternoon, May 27.

The incident occurred around 1:06 p.m. when Jose Rodriguez, 44, of San Joaquin Village, was drilling on top of a cement house with a zinc roof.

According to his son, Elsner Alejandro Rodriguez, 18, who was present at the time, Jose’s drill bit apparently struck a live electrical wire, causing him to be electrocuted. Elsner, describing the horrifying moment, said his father became motionless after the shock.

Desperate to save his father, Elsner rushed to a neighbor, Nancy Chan, a nursing assistant who was off duty at the time. Nancy Chan recounted, “I was sleeping, so my nephew came and called me to go and assist back there; but really, I don’t know what happened. When I reached there, the neighbors were already bringing him down, and his face was already cyanotic, or purple. That means that he didn’t have a pulse.”

Nancy attempted to revive Jose Rodriguez by performing CPR. “I did five cycles but still, we couldn’t get no pulse. My sister called for the ambulance [but] they told her that the ambulance was not in Corozal, that it was in Belize. She even called the police, and the police told her that she needs to call the ambulance,” she explained.

Realizing the urgency, Nancy decided to use her own vehicle to transport Jose to the nearest clinic. Despite her efforts, Jose Rodriguez was pronounced dead on arrival at the San Narciso Poly Clinic by Dr. Udelly Lucas at 1:20 p.m.

Nancy Chan described the scene, noting that Jose had burns on his face, likely from the electrical shock. “He only had burns to his face, I think because of the same electricity that went to his body, right on the left side. Apart from that he had no bleeding because, like I told you, I did CPR, so he was not bleeding from nowhere,” she said.