BELIZE: 'Father of the Nation' in critical condition

BELIZE CITY, Belize (CMC):

Former Belize Prime Minister George Price, 92, is reported to be "brain dead", according to a senior official in the party he cofounded, but his family yesterday remained tight-lipped about his medical condition.

Price, the country's first prime minister and the first Belizean to be declared a national hero, remains on life support at Belize Healthcare Partners, a private medical facility in Belize City.

A senior member of the main opposition People's United Party (PUP), which Price cofounded in 1950 and led for three decades, told the Caribbean Media Corporation: "Mr. Price won't recover - he's technically brain dead." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly about Price's condition.

Price, who led the former British Honduras into Independence on September 21, 1981, was hospitalised on Wednesday after falling in his bathtub at his Pickstock Street home. He was rushed to hospital with a head injury that required emergency surgery to remove a blood clot.

Price was put into a medically induced coma and while his family has asked Belizeans to pray for the recovery of the 'Father of the Nation', his prognosis remains cloaked in secrecy.