Almost four years after being doused with acid by an unknown assailant, attorney and politician Gaumattie Singh puts up a brave face for the world while trying to regain normalcy in her life.
Singh has had nine reconstructive surgeries on her face and three surgeries on her damaged left eye so far, in a bid to secure a more normal appearance and save the vision in her eye, following the May 28, 2008 attack.
“That is the day in my life that I cannot forget,” Singh, 56, told Stabroek News on Friday, when she finally broke her silence on the incident that changed her life.
Singh, who attributes her survival to God, is still trying to resume her life. She returned to the courtroom in March of 2010, which was her first public appearance since the incident. “It was hard. It has been very hard especially when I am the sole bread winner for the family,” she said, while identifying a list of expenses. She had a higher profile return to politics, when she endorsed the PPP/C during last year’s elections campaign.
She said that initially she did not want to talk to the media, since she was still traumatized and she was overwhelmed with emotion as she recalled the events. On the day of the incident, Singh was at home preparing to travel to Essequibo for a funeral to be held the following day (May 29). She said that her then clerk informed her that someone wanted to meet her urgently. “My clerk said to me, ‘Miss Singh, someone has come all the way from Linden and wants you to do an injunction on a land matter for them.’ Could you please come now and meet the person?’” she recalled.
Singh’s husband, Krishna Persaud, then interjected, saying that later they learnt that this was only a ploy to get her out of the house for “assassination.”
According to Singh, she indicated to the clerk that she did not have much time to spare. However, she instructed her clerk to ask the man that he be at her office before 3 o’clock, she later had to pick up her grandson from school.
“At 3 o’clock, there was no client. At 3:30, I said to the clerk that I can’t wait anymore,” she recalled, adding that shortly after the clerk told her, “‘The man said he can’t come again because he is taken up with some other matters.’” It was shortly after this that Singh left her office in the company of Persaud, en route to a city school to pick up their grandson.
She said that while in front of the school she lowered her window to speak to the guard and then decided not to use the air conditioning, since it was not a hot day. She left that location with the window lowered.
‘Don’t panic’
They stopped at the traffic light at the intersection of Sheriff Street and Railway Embankment, with their vehicle being next in line to move in a southern direction along Sheriff Street.
Singh said that in a parallel lane waiting to turn onto David Street was a taxi driver she knew very well. She said that the man hailed her and before she could have responded, “There was a man who splashed this thing and hold his hand down on his face.” She added that she did not know how the person arrived next to her vehicle or how he escaped.
Shortly after the incident an eyewitness had told Stabroek News that Singh had her window down and was speaking at the time when a light blue car bearing an “HB” number plate stopped a short distance away. The eyewitness recalled that a young man got out of the vehicle and started heading towards her. He had a black bag in his hand and as he neared Singh, the man pulled out a bottle with an orange liquid and threw it into the woman’s face. The man then reportedly calmly returned to the car that he arrived in and it sped off.
Singh said that Persaud was sitting in the front passenger seat while her grandson was in the back seat. “At that point I did not know what else happened. My foot was still on the brakes and I had the vehicle in the drive gear and I felt something start to go up into my nose and I started to sniff and by that time I get like a blackout,” she said, emotion evident in her voice.
She added that when she regained consciousness moments later, she did not panic but quickly pulled up the hand brake, put on the hazard lights and put the vehicle in park.
She realized that something was visibly wrong with her face when her grandson started to scream. “I said to them don’t panic,” she recalled, adding that she asked the taxi driver she was speaking with earlier to transport her to the hospital.
She was taken to the St Joseph Mercy Hospital, where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. While a patient there, Singh said, she learnt that unknown persons visited enquiring about her condition. “For my own safety and because I was dissatisfied with the medical service rendered at that point, I thought the best thing was to get myself out of the country,” she said. Three days later, she and members of her immediate family flew to neighbouring Trinidad.
Surgeries
Singh and her husband explained that in the years since the attack, they have been travelling between Trinidad and Miami for specialized medical care. Nine reconstructive surgeries to her face and neck have so far been done in Trinidad, while three eye surgeries—two cornea grafts and one lens implant—have been done in Miami. The surgeries, airfare and accommodation, cost in excess of US$200,000.
In Trinidad, earlier this month, she underwent surgeries to her mouth and an area close to her damaged eye at the Southern Medical Centre. Singh explained that to do some work around her eye would cost US$30,000. “I had started to save towards that,” she noted, while adding that during the last surgery, the skin around the eye area was lifted so that it could take on a more normal appearance. Pointing to the area, she said that a piece of her nose was “remade” by the doctor. Also, she explained that some work was done on her mouth so that she could open it wider and have her dentures done.
Because she did not have the full amount to pay for the surgery for the eye, it had to be rescheduled, she said, stressing that the hospital in Miami can confirm this.
Shortly before the interview, Singh and her husband were robbed at gunpoint of over $1 million, which was part of the US$30,000 they had managed to accumulate. They had only hours before arrived in the country from Trinidad and were attempting to open the gate when the bandits held them up. Their passports containing their US visas were also snatched. This is a big blow as the visas were issued so they can travel abroad for medical treatment.
Singh recalled that she was so traumatized she did not even want to give a statement to the police when she returned from Trinidad after undergoing the first operation. Singh told this newspaper that there were several “links” to the motive behind the incident and “frankly speaking I do not want to go over back all of that.”
Persaud, at one point during the interview, noted that his wife was one of the founding members of the Alliance For Change, but left following a disagreement with two senior members of the party.
Singh, during the interview, identified a person who she was certain played a part in the attack. That person, it was explained, was known to her for several years and did and said things that appeared suspicious. That person, however, was never arrested by investigators, who took their statement. The couple described the person who they identified as “dangerous.” Police had arrested a woman during the initial investigation but she was released. No other arrests have ever been made and from all appearances the case has gone cold.
“Everything might look like glitters but not everything that glitters is gold,” her husband said, while noting that it has not been easy for them financially.
