-may have suffered eye impairment
Selena Rambarat, the six-month-old baby who sustained a fractured skull last month when her mother was attacked by an ex-lover, has been released from the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) but the vision in her left eye may be permanently impaired.
Faizul Ousman, the alleged attacker, is still on the run and was last seen in the Hand-en-Veldt, Mahaica area two weeks ago.
Rambarat was admitted to the Children’s Ward at GPH on March 23. Her condition had worsened and she’d spent several days attached to a life support machine in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
However, the child has proven that she is a fighter. Relatives told this newspaper yesterday that because of the wound Rambarat sustained during the attack she cannot see with her left eye and doctors have indicated that this may be permanent.
The child is now with her father, her mother said yesterday, and will remain there until she has had enough time to recuperate.
On the morning of that day, Rambarat’s mother 21-year-old Kalwantie Kumar of Hand-en-Veldt, Mahaica was returning home from the clinic when she was allegedly attacked by the man with whom she had formerly shared a relationship. Kumar’s right arm was fractured as a result and she sustained injuries to the head.
The mother told Stabroek News that Ousman is still on the run and continuously contacts her and other close relatives. On one occasion, Kumar related, the man begged that she drop the matter.
“I coulda be a dead woman now…my child still suffering. I na forgiving he. He got to face de law,” she stated.
The police, according to relatives, are helping as much as they can to apprehend the man. Ousman, they said, was last seen in a Hand-en-Veldt shop about two weeks ago. However, every time they get a good lead he always manages to elude them.
“The last time we hear he was staying in the Lowlands area but when we show up there with the police he de gone already,” one relatives explained. “Is people calling this man and telling he when we coming.”
Hemwantie Jadunauth, the woman’s 20-year-old sister and their 56-year-old mother, Lalpatie Persaud, rushed to Kumar’s assistance and were reportedly beaten by Ousman. This is the second time, according to relatives, that Ousman hit Persaud.
Persaud, sitting in her hammock at her Mahaica home yesterday afternoon, told this newspaper that on August 11, 2002 she was beaten by Ousman. The woman says she remembers the date very well because one of her daughters was getting married that day.
“Is round that time me daughter [Kumar] de gone away with de man [Ousman] and he didn’t want she come to de wedding,” Persaud recalled. “But me daughter come to de wedding still and he show up to create problem and I go over there and is then he beat me.”
After the late March attack Persaud was hospitalized for several days and has still not fully recovered. The woman said she is a diabetic and as a result the injuries she sustained affected her seriously. Persaud is now several pounds lighter and continuously worries for the safety of her family.
Kumar previously told Stabroek News that she became involved in a relationship with the suspect about five years ago. The relationship, she said, lasted for just over one year and she was forced to leave because of repeated verbal and physical abuse.
The woman had explained that she and Ousman had a son together and the child was living with him. Kalwantie said that she is currently involved in a relationship with her daughter’s father and has moved on with her life. Ousman, she said, had threatened her repeatedly ever since she became involved with her present reputed husband. Those threats, according to her, only increased while she was pregnant with her daughter.
