The mother of Oswayn Littleton Vieira, whose decomposed body was found in the Canje River after he escaped from the New Amsterdam Psychiatric Hospital (NAPH), is insisting that he did not suffer from a mental ailment.
Jennifer Sobers, speaking with reporters in Berbice yesterday, explained that last year she had taken her son to see the doctor and it was never determined that he suffered from any psychiatric disorders. This visit, a clinic card showed, was made to the doctor on October 5 last year. “They bring me son from town and look wa happen…they kill me chile…ow they kill me son,” Sobers said between wails.
Reports reaching this newspaper had said that Vieira, 38, was one of 25 persons who were “cleaned up” from the streets of the city during the recent Union of South American (UNASUR) summit and taken to the NAPH.
Sobers said that she had last seen Vieira alive on November 24. Vieira, according to her, lived with her in Tiger Bay, Georgetown and usually did odd jobs for persons around the city. Many years ago, Sobers reported, he had worked at sea. The next day (November 25), Sobers recalled, she missed Vieira because he failed to return home.
Sobers said she and other relatives spent several days searching for him. On Wednesday, the woman said, she was at a son’s house when another of her sons came running towards her. Sobers said that she was told that Vieira was dead and when she asked where she was told that he was found in the Canje River. “I couldn’t believe it,” Sobers stated.
She said that she could not figure out how Vieira had gotten to Berbice or what he was doing there. Later, the woman said that relatives contacted the police in Berbice and were told that they would need to travel there with identification documents. “My son is not mad…I took him to the doctor last year…he doesn’t have a certificate. My son knows his mother name, his sister name, all his family name. My son is not mad,” Sobers insisted.
She further added that two of the other persons picked up in Georgetown and moved to NAPH also live in Tiger Bay. Sobers said that the two young men have “sound minds.” “Is why them doing this to the people children? These children are not mad,” the woman said.
Sources at NAPH had told Stabroek News that Vieira and some of the other patients insisted that they did not belong there and wanted to go back to Georgetown.
Around 11 am on Saturday, Vieira reportedly “broke the ventilation and escaped” to a bushy area at the back of the building. An alarm was raised but by the time staff got to the area to recapture him he had already disappeared among the bushes.
His body was later fished out of the Canje River on Monday by a group of men searching along the Canje River for a missing boat. Police later said that “no marks of violence were found on the body.”
Even if her son and the other men had been transported to NAPH because of their rugged appearance, Sobers said, the institution should have been able to secure them, calm them down and should have contacted their relatives. “I can’t stand all this expenses on my own,” the woman further said with reference to the man’s funeral expenses. “Is not my fault my child dead like this.”
It was state workers, she said, who transported Vieira from the city to the institution. She believes that they are responsible for the man’s death and should help with the funeral expenses.
Vieira was her fourth of 21 children, Sobers said. He is survived by 12 siblings.
