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George Price’s Care Provide Lashes Out At the Nat’l Hero’s Family
posted (September 16, 2011)
Former Prime Minister and PUP Leader Emeritus George Price remains in critical but stable condition at the Belize Healthcare Partners this evening.

Unofficial reports say that he has shown some small signs of improvement - as there is some movement of his limbs.

As has been widely reported, the 92 year old fell in the bathroom of his Pickstock Street home on Wednesday - and suffered a serious injury to his head.

He underwent surgery, reportedly to remove a clot - and has been holding on since then. And while the prayers of the nation remain with the National Hero, tonight there is a twist in the story.

His caretaker, Herman Requena has come forward to bitterly complain about Mr. Price's family. Requena we note, more or less grew up in Mr. Price's house - as the elder brother of Stacy Jacobs, a child from the area who Price raised; she is his former driver's daughter.

A little complicated, but it's important background to understand the "in" that Requena has with Mr. Price.

And now, this care-taker who's been attending to the elder statesman for, he claims, over ten years - says they are wrongly blaming him for Mr. Price's fall; they say he's a quote, "common thief."

Strong words and today we asked Requena the tough questions:..

Jules Vasquez
"You were the person taking care of Mr. Price. But you weren't there when he got hurt. I heard that you weren't on the job."

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"I come to work at 8 o' clock in the morning and leave at 5 in the evening. What that incident it was between 5 - 5:30 am. I dot have any business at work at that hour. I arrive at work at 8 o' clock and I saw Ms. Lenny Jo vehicle and Mr. Musa vehicle and Dr. Waight vehicle. I know that they are not usually there in the morning and so I knew that something is wrong. I went up the stairs and they block me from entering. They told me that I can't enter and I ask why, they told me that Mr. Price fell down this morning."

Since then he has not been allowed to see the ailing 92 year old:

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"They don't want me to see him. I went to the hospital; they block me from seeing him. Mr. Smiling left orders at the door that I should not go there to see him. They don't want me anywhere near Mr. Price. I have no problem with them, they do not like me because Mr. Price treats me like a son and he treats me better than how he treat them. That's the only thing I can think of why they would have this problem with me."

Jules Vasquez
"I've also heard that the family feels that you were fleecing Mr. Price - that you are robbing Mr. Price. Not rob in terms of hold him but that you are hustling from him what is his. That's what they say. How would you answer that?"

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"Hustling means a lot of things. They feel like Mr. Price is giving me the world. And it's true, Mr. Price give me a lot of things but Mr. Price also give them a lot of things also. Mr. Price give them the riches, Mr. Price is just giving me the love back just like how he was giving to them. They didn't show Mr. Price the love; I am showing Mr. Price the love. So if Mr. Price wants to give me anything then that is my business and that is none of their business."

Jules Vasquez
"Like what sorts of things are we talking about?"

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"Mr. Price helps me out with a lot of stuff. I am a cyclist - Mr. Price helps me out in a lot of ways. Mr. Price helps me out with different stuff but I don't want to get in that because that is none of the family members business."

Jules Vasquez
"They feel that you are taking advantage of him in his old age."

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"Mr. Price is not a fool. They believe that he is but Mr. Price is not a fool. Everything that Mr. Price do he knows, anything that Mr. Price says is because he wants it to be done. Mr. Price is not a fool. He has a lot of sense up here. Everybody believes that Mr. Price is fool but he is not fool at all. He knows everything."

Jules Vasquez
"I've heard that you get Mr. Price to write little notes to help you out and then you go to people and say that Mr. Price writes this for you to help me out. Mr. Price would address it to the individual?"

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"Tell them to bring that note to me and I will say if it's true or not. Tell them stop telling lies and bring the note to me and I will tell them if it's true or not."

Jules Vasquez
"He helps you out; there is no crime in that."

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"He doesn't write any notes for me to go to anybody. That's foolishness and if they do help me out then that's my business and Mr. Price business. What Mr. Price does for them...- come on Jules, they are rich, they have everything. If Mr. Price want to help me that's my business and Mr. Price business. They are just jealous that Mr. Price is helping me now and not helping them anymore."

Jules Vasquez
"But you are an outsider, so they see you as an outsider who is taking advantage of an old man."

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"I am not an outsider Jules. That man raises me from a little boy growing up - from the neighbor. He knows the inside and outside of me. I am more family to him than them. One example; when the Hurricane Richard came I ask Mr. Price if he wants to go with his family to spend the hurricane and he says that he wants to go with me. He spends the hurricane with me at my family house and not the Price family house - my family house. That shows to tell you that he wants to be around me and not them. This man loves me more than how he loves his family. He tells them that to their face. He tells them more than one time that he prefers me around him than them."

Jules Vasquez
"It's a personal question, but are you in Mr. Price's will? Or do you expect that you will be in his will? He is not dead and there is no one hoping for his death but if he loves you all so much."

Herman Requena, Price's Caretaker
"It's for me to know and for you to find out Jules. That's it."

Family representative Henry Charles Usher - Mr. Price's Grand Nephew - today confirmed that the fall did happen after 5:00 am but that two doctors, Waight and Godinez were called immediately and they recommended bed-rest before anything else was done. After that, he was taken to the hospital at about 10:00 am.

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