THE mother and her two-year-old child who had a mishap outside of KFC on Water Street Monday afternoon actually fell into a ‘grease trap’ and not a ‘man hole’, a senior Mayor and City Council (M&CC) functionary confirmed yesterday.

Both mother and child who were treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital were sent home after indications that they had suffered no serious medical emergencies.
However, it could be too early to determine what after-effects they may suffer, since the mother reported having hit a bone in her lower back and over the last two days was complaining of pains in that region. Additionally, the two-year-old has not been as sprightly as normal and had an elevated temperature yesterday.
Misfortune struck around 14:30 hrs on Monday when just after a heavy downpour, twenty-two-year-old Alecia Thomas, who was lifting her two-year-old daughter, Haley, stepped into the uncovered ‘grease trap’ at the northern end of KFC on Water Street in downtown Georgetown.
Alecia’s mother, Tabitha Thomas of 83 William Street, Kitty, who was walking along with them said that as Alecia went down into the hole, impulsively she pushed the child upward and she (Tabitha) snatched her out of harm’s way. But by then the child had already involuntarily taken the putrid water into her mouth and was crying out frantically. Both the child and her mother were covered in the obnoxious waste from the ‘grease trap’.
As the alarm was sounded, public-spirited persons as well as curious onlookers rushed to the scene and Alecia was helped out of the hole which had water that reached as high as her breasts, her mother said.

KFC RUDE STAFFERS
Tabitha recalled that she in turn asked the staff at KFC for water to wash off the mother and baby, but they were blatantly rude, showed no sympathy and slammed the steel door in their faces, asking Alecia whether she was blind that she did not see the hole.
But Alecia explained that since it was raining, the water level had come right up to the surface of the concrete walkway, and the effluent from the food waste seemed like a piece of cardboard on the concrete. It was only when she stepped onto it, that she realised that it was an open hole filled with water.
However, women selling along the pavement wasted no time in securing water and openly bathed the mother and baby. The mother remained with her wet and soiled clothing, but the baby was left without clothing for about twenty minutes, by which time a unit from the Central Fire Station arrived on the scene and took them to hospital. When they arrived at the hospital, it was around 15:00 hrs, the grandmother recalled.
They went through the required triage procedure and were eventually treated, leaving the hospital around 20:00 hrs or so, about five hours later, Tabitha recalled.
On Tuesday this newspaper visited KFC twice in an attempt to speak with the manager, but was referred to a supervisor, in his absence. However, the supervisor remained mum.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Chronicle consulted with, and was accompanied to the site by a very senior and knowledgeable functionary of City Hall’s Constabulary Department, who advised that what the mother and baby had slipped into was not in fact a ‘man hole’, but a ‘grease trap’ which was the property of KFC.
In the meantime, relatives vowed to leave no stone unturned to get justice for the injury, inconvenience and humiliation suffered by the woman and her young child.
Written By Shirley Thomas