Ten-year-old Sean Bellamy, a pupil of Smyth Memorial School who sustained a gaping wound to his head two Fridays ago while assisting in cleaning the school compound, last week developed complications which relatives fear may require further medical intervention.
The child was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital the same afternoon, and was treated and sent home. His mother, Natasha Mayers, recalled that, a few days later, his head and face had become “swollen to a size”, but she had no idea something strange was going on inside.
The following Thursday he returned to the institution to have the stitches removed.  Attending to the wound, the nurse discovered that it was oozing a frightening amount of puss, prompting concerns that it may have become infected and was aggravated by the hot weather conditions prevailing.
The hospital extracted the puss and the child, with swollen head and face was again examined by a doctor at the hospital.  Fearing the infection might have spread to other parts of the head, the doctor ordered immediate laboratory tests.  That having been done, Bellamy, who was accompanied by his mother, was given medication and sent home around 23:00.
The distraught mother recalled that as the days went by, her son complained of severe headaches, and she, determined that he should not have to undergo head surgery, purchased pharmaceuticals and cleaned the wound daily, while ensuring that his medication was taken exactly as prescribed by the doctor.
“I must thank God for His mercies, and the staff at the Georgetown Public Hospital, for I see that the swelling has gone down and the wound which remained open ever since the day he got the blow, is beginning to close up,” Mayers said.
The woman is incensed over what she refers to as the most callous attitude of the male class teacher in whose care the child was, when he was injured.
According to the ten-year-old, on Friday March 5, he was among a group of Grade 4 boys the teacher took out into the yard to pick up litter.  He recalled that around 14:30 hrs. he ran under the school building to pick up paper, when he banged his head into green heart bar which was supporting a post.
The matter was drawn to the teacher’s attention and he reportedly took the injured child upstairs and applied ‘something white’ to the wound and dispatched him.  Mayers said that the teacher neither took the child to hospital, nor did he inform her or any other family member by telephone.   It was a class mate who gave the child a rag which he used to check the flow of the blood while going home on his own.  He recalled that, bleeding, he was forced to walk about eight corners to reach home on Adelaide Street. Charlestown.
A few days later he went back to school but had to return home because of headaches.  His mother told the Guyana Chronicle that by yesterday she opted to send him back to school because they are preparing for tests.  She said that at midday she went to take lunch for her son when the same male class teacher passed by.  As he approached them, she was giving Sean his medication, but the teacher merely glanced at them and went along his way, without saying anything to her or enquiring about the child’s condition.
“Well, if that is the kind of care and level of interest shown in a child who is injured at school, while under the supervision of that same teacher, then heaven forbid,” the distraught mother concluded.  She said that after she was completely ignored by the male teacher, she spoke with the Deputy Head Teacher about the matter.