(Trinidad Express) The mother of seven-year-old Shazard Mohamed is living a nightmare no parent ever wants to encounter.
Sheriffa Shyam is now sharing her story hoping to prevent another tragedy like the one she experienced on Monday afternoon.
The mother of two went to Clarke Rochard Government School to pick up her son, a standard one pupil, at around 3.15 p.m.
His favourite snack was pholourie, she said, and Shyam bought a bag from a vendor outside the school.
The mother said she broke a piece of the pholourie and fed it to her son.
What happened next would change her life forever.
In an interview at the family’s home at Platanite Trace, Penal, Shyam broke down in tears as she recalled the incident.
She was supported by her husband, Sheriff Mohamed, and her mother, Jennifer Shyam.
The grandmother said: “Since this happened yesterday she is not herself. She told us that she bought the pholourie for the child outside the school. She shared it for a few children who were waiting for transportation and then break a piece and fed it to her son.
He immediately started to choke and she began knocking his back. It didn’t come out so she pushed her finger into his throat trying to take it out. His mouth locked with her finger inside.”
Shyam managed to remove piece of the pholourie but her son fell unconscious.
Passers-by attempted to help as the distraught mother performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on her child.
He was pronounced dead at the Siparia Health Facility.
Father Sheriff Mohamed said he was not satisfied with the response of the Emergency Medical Services.
“The ambulance took almost an hour to get there. I was in Corinth and I was able to drive to Siparia Health Facility and my child was not there yet. A passer-by was preparing to take him to the hospital when the ambulance reached,” he said.
Mohamed, a heavy equipment operator, questioned whether his son’s life would have been saved had he received urgent medical care.
“A whole hour passed, now I am wondering if they could have saved his life. I cannot believe my son lost his life with a little piece of pholourie. A brilliant child gone just like that. Somebody could have saved him,” he said.
Shyam said her son was a healthy child who loved to make his family laugh.
She said he loved pholourie and would often ask her to make the snack at home.
The mother recalled the last family vacation in Tobago.
“Carnival Friday we went to Tobago and stayed the entire week. He had a ball, dancing and even entered a limbo competition at the hotel. He was accustomed eating pholourie, that was not his first time,” she said.
Relatives said the boy’s nine-year-old sister, also a pupil at the school, was devastated.
Shazard’s body was removed to the San Fernando Mortuary where an autopsy was performed. It found that he died from asphyxiation due to obstruction of the upper airway.
Training for teachers
Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) president Antonia De Freitas said the union will begin discussions on whether teachers should be trained to deal with medical situations.
De Freitas was responding to comments that teachers were not trained in performing the Heimlich manoeuvre, which can save a child’s life.
She said teachers were required, however, to assist and support in a “crisis” situation as far as humanly possible.
“I am sure the teachers would have called the ambulance for the parents. However, as to whether we can mandate that, that is a discussion we need to have as a union and the employer because there will always be risks involved in terms of persons who are not trained medically regarding treating someone, especially for young children,” she said.
De Freitas said the union would begin discussions with its members, the Health Ministry and Education Ministry on the issue.