Former headmistress, 61, commits suicide

Oct 26, 2010 News

Years of abuse and evidently no appeasing resolution, may have been the main factors which drove a 61-year-old retired teacher, Julie Ramlall, to suicide. Her husband, Deolall Ramlall, was at his place of work with the Guyana Elections Commission when the woman ended her life, on Friday.
Although a reputable member of society, this newspaper understands that the teacher, of La Grange, West Bank Demerara, was not spared physical and verbal abuse meted out by family members.
The husband, according to reports, is a Voter Education Manager with GECOM. One of the woman’s sons was also an employee of GECOM until he was sacked for violent behaviour against his colleagues.
The first case of assault was on West Demerara. The commission immediately ordered his dismissal. However, the father reportedly suppressed the termination order by posting his son to a GECOM location at Diamond. He was subsequently terminated for after another act of assault.
Commenting on the death of the former head teacher, one neighbour said, “Is almost every day them (two family members) does drink. And you would never know the big man (husband) does drink because he don’t drink around here; he does go till by a shop on New Road (Vreed-en-Hoop) name Tiger.”
The resident recalled that the woman would be subjected to regular verbal assaults which this newspaper was told almost always ended with physical attacks.
But though she was able to endure the verbal and physical abuse over the years, it was revealed that the woman would become incapable of dealing with her abusive dilemma after learning that her spouse for many years was also unfaithful.
“The wife couldn’t take it anymore,” a source close to the family revealed yesterday. And in a final bid to end her years of suffering at the hands of the people who should have been loving and caring for her, the traumatised woman ingested a fatal dose of herbicide.
And it was the woman herself who made the announcement last Friday that she had consumed the deadly substance some minutes after ingesting it.
“She drink the thing and she go and tell them that she drink it.” The disclosure was soon followed by bouts of violent vomiting which caused shocked family members to rush the woman to the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
Despite attempts to save her life she was pronounced dead soon after.
Attempts, by this newspaper to visit the woman’s’ West Bank Demerara residence yesterday, were met with the wrath of the woman’s son which was characterised by his “You are not welcomed here, leave…” remarks to representatives of this newspaper.
An average of 180 suicides is recorded each year, a state of affairs that has caused the Ministry of Health to considerably boost its capacity to respond to the public health scourge. According to Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Guyana has since developed a surveillance system to track all suicide deaths.
However, the Minister has conceded that the tracking of attempted suicides is still weak. In recognition of the fact that there is at least 500 suicide attempts on an annual basis, the Ministry of Health is now requiring all hospitals to report any possible suicide attempt cases to the Ministry within 24 hours after presentation at the hospital.
The Ministry recently introduced a crisis hotline service which is intended to help reduce the problem.

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Former headmistress, 61, commits suicide

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