'Flu' kills Air Guard recruit

An investigation has been launched by the Trinidad and Tobago Air Guard into the circumstances surrounding the death of recruit Jaylon Morris.

Morris,19, of St Barb’s, Belmont, died around 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Port of Spain General Hospital, after displaying flu-like symptoms.

As a result of his death, other recruits have been quarantined pending the results of an autopsy.

A release from public relations officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force Cpt Al Alexander states Morris ’enlisted into the Air Guard on November 23 and at present was undergoing recruit training. Initial reports indicate that recruit Morris exhibited acute flu-like symptoms at the time of his passing and further tests have been done to determine the exact cause of death’.

Contacted yesterday, Alexander said Morris complained of diarrhoea on Friday.

Stating the information he received following Morris’s death was ’he had a serious lung and chest infection,’ Alexander said, as a precautionary measure, recruits have been quarantined at Teteron Barracks, in Chaguaramas.

Morris’s mother, Nauren, told the Express yesterday her son was a ’focused person, who recently completed MIC’.

’My son told me that being in the Air Guard will open new doors for him,’she added.