Twenty-one-year-old Natasha Vieira, who died in the Female Observation Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital after she was attacked by another patient, died as a result of manual strangulation and haemorrhage to the head caused by blunt trauma, according to her mother.
The body of Vieira, whose home has been the hospital since she was nine, was handed over to her mother, Jacqueline Vieira, who yesterday told Stabroek News that while she did not have “a cent” to bury the young woman she hopes to get some assistance from an overseas relative.
“Right now I just feel so guilty, is like I shoulda do more for Tasha but sis leh me tell you it was not easy and I was a single parent,” the woman told Stabroek News yesterday.
Vieira died early Saturday morning after she was reportedly thrown off her bed and choked by another inmate. A release from the hospital late Saturday afternoon had said the young woman was discovered with marks of violence around the neck and after being seen by a doctor she was pronounced dead at around 5 am the said morning. The police in their release had said Vieira was found lying on the floor next to her bed with blood oozing from her mouth and she was lifted off her bed and thrown onto the floor.
Yesterday the young woman’s mother said that the last time she would have seen her daughter was about a month ago.
The mother’s comments as reported in a story published in Kaieteur News have angered those in charge of the hospital as according to sources for many years the woman did not visit the child.
Sources told Stabroek News that in fact for years the young woman was known as Natasha Ward as they did not know her surname and the ‘Ward’ came about because she was growing up in the Paediatric Ward of the hospital.
Stabroek News was told that it was only in 2007 that the young woman’s mother started to visit her and she still had not made contact with the hospital’s administration. The hospital had plans to bury the young woman but her mother demanded the body and it was handed over. Sources indicated that while Natasha was still in the Paediatric Ward a woman attempted to adopt her and while the papers were being processed the woman had taken her home.
But after a week the woman returned the child to the institution and informed the authorities that the girl was “too much trouble to handle.” Attempts were also made for the child to be placed in the Mahaica Home but that did not materialise.
While at the hospital Natasha was seen by a psychiatrist but a senior doctor at the institution was unable to provide a diagnosis of her ailment and would only say that she was “mentally challenged.”
Single parent
Speaking to Stabroek News, Jacqueline Vieira said that while she feels guilty about the way her child died there was not much she could have done as it was too much for her as a single parent to deal with a child who was mentally ill.
The mother of two, whose younger daughter celebrated her twentieth birthday on Sunday, said that she was forced to leave the father of her two children when the last was four months old and Natasha was just over a year.
“I had to leave he because he marry another woman and he never look back at the children since then. It was two babies I had really and Tasha had to get round the clock attention and it was hard fo me as a single parent and I had to find a job.”
She told of the many occasions her child was abused when she was forced to leave her with friends and relatives. However, she said there was not much she could have done as she had to go out and find a job and the child had to be left with someone.
She recalled that mere weeks after Natasha was born she knew something was wrong with her because she was ‘so small.” “For months I didn’t know how to hold her – I use to put her on a pillow and hold her. The lil one walk before she, she never walk until around three years old,” the mother said.
“You think is two cents I went through, who feels it knows it. You know it wasn’t easy with a child like Tasha, sometimes I wash my clothes and Tasha would pull dem down and soak dem down again, it didn’t easy it was hard,” the woman lamented.
She said she knew many persons would want to criticize her for leaving the child at the hospital but she said even though she had seen signs of abuse at the hospital she still felt it was the best place for her as she did not have a better alternative.
Job at Kwakwani
Natasha ended up at the Georgetown Public Hospital after her mother travelled to Kwakwani for a job and left her with some friends. She left her younger daughter with her sister.
On her return the friends told her that they were unable to properly take care of the child and they left her at the GPHC.
Jacqueline confirmed that for years she did not visit the hospital to see her daughter. “Dem tell me how dem looking for the mother and the father and how I go get lock up so I was frighten to go to the hospital. And I think it was the best place for her,” the woman said.
While she could not remember the exact date when she first visited her daughter, Jacqueline denied that last year was the first time she visited.
However, she stated that she first visited her about five years after the child was left at the institution. She said when she made her first visit her daughter was already in the Observation Ward, “but she remember me right away after five years and she call me mommy.”
She said after her initial visit she visited her daughter on several occasions and would take stuff for her.
“She like curry and every time I go she would say ‘Mam curry’ and I would take curry for her and I take clothes and things for her,” the woman said. She said she knew her daughter was being abused as on one occasion she saw burns on her and another time she saw bite marks on her breast.
“When I ask dem nurse dem tell me how dem does fight up bad and dat dem had enough of Tasha and I should tek she over back. But I know I wouldn’t able with Tasha so I just had to visit her – I couldn’t tek she home.”
Alleged attacker
She learnt of her daughter’s death while watching the news on Saturday evening and “I start fo scream and I feel so guilty.”
“But I just want to bury me daughter and leh everything lie low, my daughter is better off now, no one ent have to abuse and take advantage of she anymore.”
She said when she visited the hospital on Sunday and yesterday she saw her daughter’s alleged attacker in the ward.
“She tell me ‘Tasha mother, dem say is me kill you daughter but is nah me alone is nuff a we’ but I just ent answer.”
Jacqueline feels that if her daughter was in a home for children with her complaint she would have been better but she said while she feels guilty there is not much more she could have done.
Natasha’s body is lying at Sandy’s Funeral Home and her mother said she would be buried soon.
