The Human Services Ministry will step in to ensure that assistance is given to octogenarian Noelina Prospere-Medor, who was rescued last week from a filthy apartment aback of Craig, East Bank Demerara, until her son returns to Guyana to make permanent arrangements for her.

The heartbreaking tale of the family was brought to the ministry’s attention and with Sylvester Medor being unable to return to Guyana immediately it has promised to intervene as soon as the 85-year-old woman is ready for release from the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).

Yesterday checks by this newspaper on the woman’s condition revealed that she was doing well. Chief Probation Officer Patricia Grey told Stabroek News yesterday that she has since made contact with Sylvester Medor in the UK and with his consent the ministry will do whatever is appropriate for his mother.

He said he cannot return to Guyana immediately because he has to stay and undergo surgery in the UK. He said when he returns in December his mother will be placed in a geriatric home and he would pay for her needs and accommodation there. “Every assistance will be given to her. Whenever she is discharged from the hospital we will give our assistance in consent with her son,” Grey said.
Asked whether the ministry was interested in carrying out any investigations into the woman’s situation, Grey said the ministry’s interest at the moment lies mostly in ensuring that she is taken care of properly now that she has been found. “So we will make the interim arrangements and then when he comes he could take her and make whatever arrangements he wants,” she said. Asked whether the Palms Geriatric home was one alternative for housing the woman, the officer hesitated to comment definitively saying, “When that bridge comes we will cross it, but she will benefit from all appropriate services.”

Sylvester Medor came to Guyana in September to find his mother, but left after he was unable to locate her at the home of a husband and wife who were left as her caretakers. One of the caretakers kept insisting that she knew nothing of the woman’s whereabouts. She also said that the man had his own motives in seeking his mother’s whereabouts and denied any knowledge of where her husband had taken the woman. Later, a woman who said she was hired by the couple to look after the elderly woman led police and the media to where she was being held.

The woman told Stabroek News that when she started to voice concern about the condition of the room in which the woman was being held and how unsuitable it was the man’s wife informed her that her services were no longer needed.