TORONTO —
A Canadian man has been left paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot while on vacation in Barbados.
Ken Elliot, 65, from Calgary was injured during a home invasion in which two men, one with a machete and one with a gun, stormed the Christ Church holiday home where he was staying on the southern tip of the Caribbean island.
According to family friend Landon Zabloski, Elliot and his brother Rob fought off the attackers, but Eliot was shot in the struggle and the bullet pierced his lung and became lodged in his spine.
“Ken has always been a man who stood up for what he believed in and who stood up for others,” wrote Zabloski, who has created a GoFundMe page to raise money for Eliot’s medical expenses.
“It is now in his time of need that we have to stand up for Ken and show him he has our support.”
Elliot was taken to a Barbadian emergency room before he and his wife Linda were flown to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for further treatment.
The bullet has severed Eliot’s spine between his third and fourth vertebrae, which doctors say is permanent, according to Zabloski.
Linda described tubes “coming out of him from everywhere,” but she remains hopeful.
“A drainage tube from his severed lung, a drug tube, IV, tube inserted for blood pressure and I don’t know what the others are for,” Linda said on the GoFundMe page.
“He’s also on oxygen.”
Doctors are working on a plan to remove the bullet, Zabloski wrote.
“Ken is one of the toughest men I have met, but he needs every single ounce of support that we can give him,” Zabloski wrote.
“Even if all you can afford is an encouraging comment, let’s all stand up for Ken as he has stood up for so many of us.”
So far, more than $7,400 has been raised on the GoFundMe page.
Barbados attorney general Dale Marshall condemned the home invasion shooting as a “callous” attack.
“This house was not in the tourist belt,” he said at a Labour party meeting and reported by Barbados Today.
“This house was in a residential community in Christ Church. Tourism is our bread and butter and Barbados cannot afford to have any negative references made about how safe or unsafe … Barbados has always been felt to be a safe place for visitors and this kind of callous conduct on the part of a few hooligans can threaten the livelihood and the lifeblood of our country.”
