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Monica Bodden has Thompson's story of injury and outrage:…

This was the uncovered drain that 61 year old Cathleen Thompson fell into yesterday.

She was at the Michael Finnegan's market - getting ready to leave the compound - when she stumbled into it.

As you can see, the grill covering was missing.

Cathleen Thompson - Victim
"I went to the market with my cousin to purchase vegetables and on the way our she stop at one of the stalls to buy carrots and I took the bags from her and told her that I was taking them to the car. I took the bags and turn away and started walking and all of a sudden I felt myself just go down and when I look down I was hanging into a hole that was below me, the was no cover there and I was caught up in there, I didn't go all the way through because the hole wasn't wide enough for me to go all the way down and I look and I was in there and when a young man came by to help me get up I notice the blood was just gushing from my leg and there was a big open would there."

With the assistance of vendors - they managed to control the bleeding while someone called for an ambulance.

Cathleen Thompson - Victim
"When the vendor who pick me up saw the blood coming through, he tried to help me by putting some tissues on there. The tissues got soak and then he call out for my cousin who had a rag, she grab the rag and the it got soak and two other rags that she brought after that got soak. That's when one of the vendors came and he took a white T-shirt and he tied it above the wound and told me to keep the pressure on the spot to stop the blood from flowing out."

An ambulance came shortly after and Thompson was rushed to Belize Medical Associates.

Cathleen Thompson - Victim
"The doctor could not believe it he said that he had to take x-rays to make sure that there were no broken bones and that he would have to stitch it up because the wound was wide open. It's about 3 inches on one side and two inches on the other so it was a total of 5 inches. He gave me about 19-20 stitches. The skin was pulled all the way back so the doctor is concern that that skin because of circulation the skin would die and he'd have to go back in and remove that so I have to keep a look at it when I dress it every day to make sure that it doesn't turns black because if it turns black I have to go back to him."

For a market that has been recently reopened after over one year of renovations - Thompson says for a grill cover to be missing from off a drain is pure negligence - knowing that it is an area with heavy pedestrian traffic.

Cathleen Thompson - Victim
"I think its negligence because especially in an area like that which is a market that's frequent by people all day long, there is no reason that that should have been there. It could have happen to someone else, I just happen to be the one that got caught up in it, But its definitely negligence like I said in a place like that that should not be. It was inside the market as you come in the main entrance to the right; I was coming out so I was coming to exit the market. It's right at the entrance, as you come in the market and make a right that's where it is and it's a wide open hole."

Thompson was visiting for a funeral and was supposed to leave the country on the 28th of this month - but that is now delayed due to the injury…