A post mortem performed on the body of Sangeeta Persaud, nicknamed “Sheena”, yesterday was inconclusive.
The 14-year-old died at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WRDH) on Sunday night after she was rushed there by the pastor and members of the Christ Ambassadors Church, who had tried to force out evil spirits from her body. The teenager of 26 Canal Number Two Polder, West Bank Demerara, began behaving strangely after she had a cup of tea for breakfast on Sunday morning, in the presence of her grandmother, Chitranie Ramotar, 63, who shared a small one-bedroom cottage with her.
The elderly woman told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday that she and the teen woke up at 06:00 hrs Sunday and were having breakfast when she flung herself on the bed and started acting abnormally.
The woman added that she became alarmed when her granddaughter began shaking violently and the features of her face changed and her body twisted and contorted.
Ramotar explained that it was after sometime before Sheena responded to her when she asked if she was in pain, then she began convulsing out of control as if she was in pain.
By this time her calls to the neighbours attracted a group, including the pastor who told her the girl was possessed and must go to the church to be exorcised.
There he poured lime juice down the teen’s throat and pressed her stomach and rubbed her body with oil until she was rendered unresponsive and was groaning loudly.
At the church the pastor was assisted by a few members, including his wife who reportedly tried to get the evil spirits out of the teen’s body.
The grandmother told the Guyana Chronicle that the church members took the teen to the hospital at about 18:00 hrs and she succumbed at about 22:00 hrs that night.
Sheena was a pupil at Kawall Secondary School. She had a severe cold for some time, but was never really ill since she started living with her grandmother when she was nine.
Sheena moved in with her grandmother when her parents separated and she was reportedly ill-treated by her stepfather.
She is survived by three siblings, her parents and scores of relatives.
At her grandmother’s house yesterday, neighbours and others had gathered to comfort the elderly woman, and the police was there conducting an investigation. They expressed shock regarding the manner in, which the teen died.
They contended that had she received medical attention earlier, she would have probably been alive.