Five-year-old Girwattie Nelson of Yakusari Nursery School, who fell 20 ft from a section of the school corridor where some of the rails were missing, ended up with both of her legs in cast on Thursday after x-rays showed that they were fractured.
Another x-ray also revealed that the girl’s neck was also fractured and a doctor at the New Amsterdam Hospital has ordered that she wear a collar. The girl also suffered damaged tissue, according to previous x-rays.
The girl’s mother Lilawattie Singh, accompanied by a teacher of the school, had taken her to the hospital for further checks. The child is expected to return to the institution on Tuesday so that the doctor can monitor the progress with her neck, according to Singh. Girwattie is still experiencing constant fever and severe pain to her back and abdomen and is unable to eat.
The child was taken to a private doctor last week after she fell and then to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she was to be admitted. But the mother had explained to the doctor that she could not afford the high cost to travel from Black Bush Polder to the hospital daily to see the child and was administering treatment at home. A Georgetown businessman, touched after reading the story in this newspaper, has offered to cover the woman’s travelling expenses if it is still necessary for the child to be admitted. The incident occurred after Girwattie had gone to the primary school in the upper flat of the building to visit her sister. Singh said the child normally visits her sister when the school dismisses at midday and would wait there until her brother; Lennox goes to pick her up.
The woman said Girwattie saw some children playing a game of “Jacks” on the corridor and decided to take a seat to watch them. She fell from the corridor and lost consciousness.
The other students alerted the teachers while the child’s sister and another student picked her up. An older brother, Ryan Otis Bailey arrived at the school after getting the news and took her home.
He said the girl had regained consciousness but was in a state of shock. She started screaming after she got home and her stomach got stiff, he recalled.
Regional Education Officer Shafiran Bhajan told this newspaper that the heads of both the nursery and primary sections were supposed to ensure that the little children did not go to that area. She had ordered an investigation. Bahjan said the rails only fell out recently and had not been replaced because repairs to the entire school are expected to start soon. She said total rehabilitation to the entire sanitary facility and an overhaul of the electrical facility was completed in January.
According to her, the spindles at the Yakusari School would be replaced with “lots,” adding that this has already been done at schools at Lesbeholden, Johanna and Mibicuri in Black Bush Polder.
