A five-year-old student of Yakusari Nursery School in Black Bush Polder fell some 20 feet down from a section of the corridor that had some of its rails missing during last week and suffered “damaged tissue.”
The child, Girwattie Nelson, who is experiencing constant fever and severe pain to her back and abdomen was taken to a private doctor and then to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she was to be admitted.
But her mother Lilawattie Singh said she explained to the doctor that she could not afford the high cost to travel from Yakusari to the hospital daily to see the child. She is therefore administering the treatment to her at home instead, and will take her back to the hospital for check-ups.
She said Girwattie, had gone to visit her older sister who attends the primary school in the upper flat of the building when she fell. Singh said the child normally goes to 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 sit and watch them when she fell. The other students alerted the teachers while the child’s sister and another student picked her up.
The teachers sent for the mother at the same time that the brother arrived to take her home, but he got confused and ran home without her. 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.
“When ah bring she home then she probably feel the pain because she start to scream and she stomach get stiff. Me mother made sugar water for her,” he said.
Singh said the Mibicuri Hospital in Black Bush Polder does not have a doctor so she took Girwattie to a private doctor and paid $3,000. The doctor said he suspected that the child might have a spinal injury and ordered an x-ray.
She said they visited the New Amsterdam Hospital the next morning but the hospital could not perform the x-ray for that particular area and she was sent to a private lab instead where she paid $5,000.
After checking the x-ray, the doctor at the New Amsterdam Hospital told her that the child had damaged tissue.
During a visit to the home yesterday this newspaper observed the child walking with a slight difficulty, she also had a fever.
Stabroek News visited the school and tried to solicit a comment from the headmaster of the primary section, Chintamuni Ramcoobeer but he refused, saying that the “newspapers only like to focus on the negative things.”
He then referred this newspaper to the Regional Education Department, saying he was not authorized to speak to the media. This reporter observed that the “missing rails” were replaced with temporary strips of board.
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 has ordered an investigation and Ramcoobeer has been asked to cover the cost of medical bills for the child.
Bahjan said the boards on 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.
She said she has started an exercise to visit schools along the Corentyne this week to with a view to identifying priorities in terms of repairs so that work on this could start next week.
According to her, the spindles at the Yakusari school would be replaced with “lots”. She added that this has already been done at schools at Lesbeholden, Johanna and Mibicuri.
