– death raises more questions than answers
HOSPITAL authorities yesterday confirmed that two-year-old Rebecca Seecharran of Belmonte, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, the child bitten by rats last week, succumbed at the GPHC’s Intensive Care Unit on Monday after being operated upon. In earlier reports, the child’s mother had claimed that rats had bitten her ears and had taken off a piece of her tongue. Word going around at Mahaica is that rats had bitten the child’s tongue, ears and head. However, authorities at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) could not confirm that the child’s tongue and head had been bitten, but were able to confirm that nothing was wrong with the child’s lips.

NOT ADDING UP
“Something does not add up. Would a rat get into a child’s mouth and nibble at (the) tongue, and not bite or nibble at the lips as well?” the source, who appeared to be rather baffled, asked.
The Child Protection Agency of the Ministry of Human Services may have had concerns also, hence their taking the matter up.
Based on information coming out of Belmonte village, where the toddler’s mother (known as ‘Mala’) lives, she has several children and seems to be living in abject poverty, hence she cannot adequately provide for them.  Notwithstanding, there appears to be other concerns, and persons are wondering whether the mother might not be a victim of postpartum disorder, being overwhelmed with her social and economic situation, and therefore in urgent need of professional help.

MACABRE PRECEDENT
In retrospect, villagers are recalling a previous occasion in which one of “a woman’s” several toddlers at Mahaica took sick and was taken to the GPHC. The child was admitted and the mother returned home.
Back at home, she was alleged to have told relatives and villagers that the baby had died. This disclosure evoked much general sympathy, empathy and compassion; and good neighbours as country folks are, they teamed up to contribute food, drinks and perhaps more.  Wake was kept, tears were shed, and this went on for about one week. A date was even fixed for the burial of the child.
On the morning of the proposed burial, a neighbour decided to accompany the bereaved mother to the mortuary to help with preparing the child for burial. But on arrival at the mortuary, the morticians had no knowledge of the dead child being referred to, so the neighbour suggested they go up to the paediatric ward and enquire.
There, the two women were informed that the child had never died, had never left the ward, and was a patient taking saline. Both women appeared baffled, but the nurses appeared even more so.
Villagers are now wondering whether the mother of the rat bitten child had been a victim of postpartum disorder and might in some way have been linked to the fate of her child.

PLEASE INVESTIGATE
Perhaps the Ministry of Human Services could seek to investigate this angle, since, in their estimation, something in relation to the injury the child had suffered does not add up. What has mostly been disclosed thus far is that the home in which the woman and her children lived is heavily infested with rats.
Whatever the circumstances or cause of the child’s death, villagers are proposing that little Rebecca’s mother would definitely be in need of help to offer her a decent burial, and they would like to bring this to the attention of the Ministry of Human Services.
A post-mortem examination is to be performed on the two-year-old on Friday.