Sharon Howell, the woman who was stabbed and beaten to her head mercilessly by her partner on Sunday, has been moved from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital, giving her family hope about her condition.
Howell, 38, of Freeman Street, East La Penitence, was stabbed by Aubrey Peters multiple times about the body, including to her shoulder, neck, stomach and head. Peters also hammered her about her head using the claw of the hammer.
The woman’s brother, Wickliffe Halley, told Stabroek News last evening that doctors told relatives that she would be admitted to the HDU since she is no longer dependent on a life support machine.
“She breathing and everything on her own now,” he said with relief, adding that doctors have asked the family to prepare soup and take it for the injured woman. “They say bring the soup and a lot of water, so like she can drink things now. I think is the stab she get to her mouth that make she can’t eat and talk properly though,” he added.
He explained that Howell is responding when she is spoken to by movement of her hands and legs and also with her eyes. “This morning I go and she moving, moving… moving the foot and hand and so and when you talk to her she looking at you… she just can’t respond with her mouth as yet,” Halley explained.
Peters, who had been in a relationship with Howell, a mother of 10, for almost two years and who is the father of the woman’s youngest child—a one-year-old girl—was believed to have later ingested a poisonous substance at his sister’s home at Diamond on the East Bank Demerara and he is also a patient of the Georgetown Public Hospital (PH). There, he remains under guard and handcuffed to his bed. The man is expected to be charged with attempted murder after he is discharged from the GPH.
Relatives had told this newspaper that the man had constantly threatened Howell and abused her several times, with one instance being reported to the police. Wickliffe had said that his sister pleaded the man’s case before the police resulting in charges being dropped.
However, a police official yesterday told Stabroek News that according to records, no report of the matter was ever made and the woman had not gone to the station as claimed by relatives.
It was explained that once a report is given, no one can ask that the matter be dropped. The source further stated that police do not hold such authority and that the matter would have to be taken to court where only the magistrate can institute or drop charges.
