(Trinidad Guardian) The grieving mother of the eight-year-old Nathaniel Findley, who died after suffering a seizure at his Primary School on Monday, is calling for a full investigation into his death.
Japheal Findley is querying claims that her son had previously suffered seizures and wants to review school footage to refute rumours that her son’s seizure may have been caused by some external contact.
“I not pointing fingers to nothing I don’t know. I simply ask two of the teachers to tell the principal I want to see footage. Let me see nobody didn’t hit my child. Let me see that he really froth up and fall on the ground or something let me be comfortable,” said Findley, who stated her son did not have a history of suffering seizures.
“My child never had a history of seizures. Never in his life, he had a history of seizures. I living Sangre Grande for more than two years now. Never been admitted to the hospital for any kind of thing like that. Never, he never had seizures before.”
The school claimed that Nathaniel had indeed suffered a seizure, accompanied by vomiting three weeks ago, but his mother refuted the claim that he suffered a seizure then.
“Nathaniel had vomited the other day in school where he started to vomit right and they say he fell on the ground. They call me and told me he was unconscious. It was like around some time after 9 am and by the time I get to the school—they had him lying down on the ground, there was some vomit on (the collar of) his shirt,” she said, “He was up normal. So I don’t know if they using that to say my child suffered seizures. It have no records of nothing with my child getting a seizure before. That is not true. I don’t know why they keep doing it.”
Findley said she was contacted by the school at 2.58 pm, on Monday asking her to come to the school as Nathaniel had collapsed. She arrived at the school at 3.40 pm, by that time some witnesses claimed Nathaniel had been on the ground for an hour.
Findley was dismayed that her son had been on the ground for so long.
“I start to bawl and ask them if they didn’t call an ambulance, they say they try they didn’t get no ambulance they try fire service. But this is what I’m saying the warden office out the road always have an ambulance park in front of it,’ said Findley, who also asked why teachers did not attempt to carry the boy to the hospital in one of their cars.
School policy dictates that school officials cannot take children out of the compound in a medical emergency without the approval of the parent.
Nichole Vanderpool, president of the Seizure Awareness Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago (SAFTT) said she was saddened by the situation as the tragedy had occurred in seizure awareness month, which is commemorated in November.
She said the time taken to get Nathaniel medical treatment was far too delayed. She, however, said it was possible that Nathaniel could have suffered from epilepsy but had not been officially diagnosed.
Vanderpool explained that a full test for epilepsy would only be done after the second occurrence of a seizure outside of a 24 hour period. This meant had the incident three weeks ago been classed as a seizure, Nathaniel would have been tested for epilepsy had he survived his collapse on Monday.