“It was a trying 12 years but you know if I had to do it all over again I would do it because even though she never walk, never really talk and you do everything for her she was still such a beautiful child. When she die, I felt like dying too, that is how hard it was for me.”
The words of mother of five Aleta Odetta Josiah, whose daughter, Omefa Christine Peters, died on Boxing Day 2019. Josiah believes that her daughter was disabled because of the negligence of those in charge when she was born in 2007. For years, she was the only girl in the family and the third of six. Her only sister was born one year before she died.
“When she born, they clamped her head to help her to born and it damaged her spine and she never walked, never talked and I believe if they had take me to the theatre when I come in but they just leave me and that is what happen,” Josiah told me, her voice cracking.
When she said her baby was ‘clamped’ she meant that little Omefa was born during a forceps delivery. That instrument, shaped like a pair of large spoons or salad tongs, was used to assist her head out of the birth canal. This is typically done during a contraction while the mother pushes.
“After she born, a nurse tell me about [name of doctor given] and I take she there and you know he was working with her. I take all my savings to pay for the medication and so on. And when she was like two years old, I tell he that I can’t continue to come because I had no money. I was not working and so. You know is then the man tell me that he does work at Georgetown Hospital,” she said, sounding incredulous.
“I now went to Georgetown Hospital and it was hell for them to admit her into the clinic. I had such a hard time and it was a royal runaround. It was also a runaround to get public assistance for her; she get it till she was five years and they give her the August of the year and cancel all the months before that in the year,” she recalled.
“We did need the assistance because it was kinda very rough because she used to wear pampers. Girl it was very rough, sometimes a used to ask Food for the Poor for pampers and we would get a push around…”
Faint
Josiah recalled that the day her child was born she had no energy and believed that those in charge should have taken her to theatre straight away.
“Before I left home I started to feel bad, I did not have much energy and when I reach the hospital I got black out. They should have carried me down to the theatre but they did not. When I was in and out of consciousness they had to see that I did not have the strength to push the baby out and instead of taking me to the theatre like they did want do they own experiment. And then after sometime they said her head was already out and they use the clamp on she head to get she out. Is because of that my baby get damage and she was in the canal too long…,” she shared.
“She body was very small, very small and was not developing and these things. I keep asking questions but to no avail. Thank God for the little medical education I got from Red Cross and UG [University of Guyana] I got to understand how to deal with she condition. If I did not have that and God I don’t know where I would have been or where she would been.”
I asked her why she decided to share her experience.
“I just want women out there to know about the experience and so maybe none of them have to get that same experience. Maybe they can just be more careful and speak up, I don’t know but I don’t want anybody to get that experience,” she answered almost in tears. “When she died, she died at home after a seizure, something she did not get for five years. And you know sometimes her head would get inflammation. It used to be so much at times that you had to remove the hair from her head. She creep all the days of her life and the only words she ever say was mama and dada.
“Me or she father or brother used to feed her because if she try to feed herself she had to use her hands and it used to be so messy so we used to feed her.”
Talking about the day she died, Josiah said her daughter had a seizure for about five hours and there was not much they could have done even as they tried to get an ambulance or taxi to visit their Diamond, East Bank Demerara home.
“We didn’t getting nothing and was hard for us to pick her up and walk out and try to get a bus so we just had to wait it out and finally after about five hours she fall in a sleep like she usually do after a seizure,” she said.
“We finally get a taxi and took her to the hospital sleeping and there she was pronounced dead. The doctor at the Diamond Hospital call in the police and I had to answer a lot of questions. They took us to the police station and we stay there for over a hour answering questions and giving a statement. They wanted to cut her and you know I was like she went through so much when she alive, why cut she? And the doctor she was seeing at the hospital he give me a hard time to write up a report but finally thank God we get it. Even at the funeral the police came and we had to show them that report,” she added.
“And about August that year I notice like she navel was like decaying but them at the hospital tell me is nothing but I think they know she was like dying and they never prepare me they just told me is nothing. You know how much I go through? One doctor told me a time why I don’t give she a injection and let she die,” she said sadly.
“But I really try with her and to make her life better. I did even contact doctors overseas, you know trying to get help and I did write President Granger at one time and he give me a letter to take to the Ministry of Health for the assistance. But it never get to the office of the Minister of Health because the lady keep telling me how much children in front of me child who need help,” she stated.
Study
Josiah told me that she dropped out of university 18 years ago after completing two years of medicine because she got pregnant with her first child.
“I never went back because now I putting my children in front because they have to study. I have not really worked after getting children and especially when Omefa was alive now I have a baby so life has been hard. Now I want to go back and study but I don’t have the money…,” she said.
“It was rough when my daughter was alive but I can’t forget her… I used to take her to the special needs school and they used to want her to stay the whole day and it was fatiguing and I did ease up. And they would ask why and if I didn’t know she needed the education but nobody not looking at how I used to had to take public transportation. Sometimes you leave home at 7 and you never get a bus until about 10 and she would be late. My husband used to had to help out with the other children when I taking her,” she said.
“But you know if I had the chance, I would do it all over again because to be honest she was a lovely child and every time I see a child in that condition it touches me because I remember her. It brings back the fresh memories.
It is like everyday because you see children often like that and it is tough to get over that.”
There is much more this sister told me as she spoke of her life’s journey but I chose just to share her experience with her daughter who she clearly loved. I can only hope that the pain becomes less as she continues to walk this life’s journey and that maybe eventually she can return to her studies. Continue to march on, sister.
