One-year old Nicholas Ramnauth was a child who brought lots of joy to his family, but his life ended tragically yesterday after he fell into a septic tank in the yard of his Lot 504 Kaneville, East Bank Demerara home.

Nicholas Ramnauth

The lifeless body of the boy was pulled out from the septic tank by his father David Ramnauth moments after he was discovered missing by his relatives some time after midday.

According to the boy’s father, Nicholas was in the yard playing with his sister Selena and some of his cousins while he and his wife were cooking. During this period, David said he was constantly moving between the kitchen and the backyard as he assisted his wife. He said at one point when he stepped into the kitchen, he heard one of the children asking where Nicholas was. This question prompted him and other family members to begin a frantic search for the boy, who they soon discovered in the septic tank in the backyard.

After pulling him from the tank, David said, he tried to breathe into the boy’s mouth and to pump his heart but he did not respond.

The boy was then rushed to the nearby Diamond Diagnostic Centre. He said that the doctors tried their best to revive his son but after about 15 to 20 minutes he was declared dead.

The father said the hole in the tank had been covered with a piece of plywood and a cage, but he explained that the cage was removed.  He believes that his son stepped on the plywood which gave way resulting in him falling into the septic tank. “Less than five minutes this thing happen in, less than five minutes,” the distraught father said repeatedly.

Reflecting on his son’s short life, Ramnauth said he was an energetic and healthy child who everyone loved.  David said Nicholas was particularly attached to him and he even started calling for “dada” before calling for “mama”.

The septic tank which Nicholas fell into.

The father explained that since he was self-employed he would spend most of the day at home looking after the children while his wife was at work. “I would go to work early then come back so my wife could go to work,” he explained.

He said his common-     law wife Kamlawattie Vishwanauth was having a hard time coping with the death of her son. “Whole day she crying, whole day…I ain even get to speak to she properly since it happen,” he told this newspaper. Ramnauth said he was trying to be strong for his family even though it was proving to be difficult.

He is comforting himself in the fact that “God knows best” but he is also struck with the reality that his son has gone.

Ramnauth told Stabroek News that his son will never ride the bicycle that he and his wife had bought for him at Christmas. “The bike was too big for him,” the father explained, “so we put it up for when he get older.”

The father said that most likely the funeral will take place during next week.

He said that the family is now awaiting the results of the post-mortem examination which is set for tomorrow.

Nicholas would have celebrated his second birthday on June 30.

He was the last of three children, the other two being his older sisters Rasia, 20, and 4-year-old Selena.

Less than a month ago, four-year-old Thaddius Samuels of Lot 156 South Better Hope, East Coast Demerara (ECD) died under similar circumstances.