A toddler who was left with three small children was severely burnt yesterday afternoon after the mattress he was lying on caught fire.
Up to press time last evening Jabarie Stanford, age one year, of `D’ Field, Sophia (on the reserve) was a patient of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Hospital and is said to be in a critical condition. This newspaper was told that most of the child’s skin was burnt off.
The Georgetown Hospital said in a press release that around 1700 hours the child was brought to the Accident and Emergency Unit with burns to his entire body.
At the hospital, the child’s mother was too devastated to speak.
Stanford’s aunt Tomica Adams said that neighbours were alerted to the fire by the screams of the toddler’s siblings said to be ages eight, seven and three.
Adams explained that the children’s mother yesterday got a job in town and after feeding the toddler, she left. She said that the neighbours were watching over the children.
This newspaper was told that after hearing the screams, neighbours saw smoke emanating from the structure but by then the mattress that Stanford was lying on was engulfed and so was he. Several young men used buckets of water to quell the fire after which the badly injured child was picked up and rushed to the hospital.
Based on what Stabroek News was told no one knows how the fire started.
Adams told Stabroek News that she and other relatives turned up at the hospital after being informed of what had transpired. She said that the toddler is unable to breathe properly and “his skin burn right off”.
Neighbours managed to save the house which was left scorched.
