Stranded American woman admitted to GPHC Psychiatric Ward

Oct 20, 2013 News

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By Dale Andrews

An American woman who had her newborn baby taken away by the Welfare Department of the Human Services Ministry is now in her third day of observation at the Psychiatric Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The woman, Delliccia Honore, 37, was admitted to the ward after the Welfare Department secured an order from a local magistrate committing her for psychiatric evaluation.
This was because her behaviour had become erratic after she delivered her fifth child at the New Amsterdam hospital two weeks ago.
The woman, who arrived in Guyana on September 27, in an advanced stage of pregnancy, and was allowed entry into the country after telling the immigration officer that she was re-migrating.
At present, there is no evidence that she is a Guyanese as she has been claiming. In fact, investigations have revealed that she is a native of Louisiana, USA who was uprooted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and ended up in Colorado.
A news item from Denver, Colorado, written by Bianca Prieto, Rocky Mountain News under the caption “… NEW ORLEANS WOMAN FINDS WARM WELCOME IN CASTLE ROCK HOME” reads “Delliccia Honore lost almost everything to Hurricane Katrina, but found a new family in Colorado.
“There may be some connection to Guyana. I don’t know if it’s either through some one of her children’s father or whether there is actually a relative or some ex-boyfriend from Guyana,” said social activist Mark Benschop who has been looking after Honore’s interests ever since her baby was taken away.
The woman has been reluctant to speak to local social workers and has been only opening up to Benschop.
According to Benschop, Honore claimed that she was born in Guyana but was abducted at the age of four and taken to the United States of America and kept captive until she was 12-years old.
“All these stories, there is no evidence to substantiate what she is saying, no records as far as I am concerned. I’ve checked with the registrar, there’s no record under this name, no Birth Certificate, there is nothing. She has never been to Guyana as far as the record indicates,” Benschop stated.
He could not ascertain for sure why the American woman came to Guyana in such a condition, although he admitted that there was a lot of speculation that she came here as a drug mule.
“I don’t think that there is sufficient evidence to put her in that category. There is something that is definitely wrong with her and she needs help,” he said.
Benschop disclosed that from his interaction with the woman and his own investigation, Honore was previously receiving assistance from several organizations in the United States of America, including church groups.
But somewhere along the line, that connection was severed and she is now stranded in Guyana, dead broke!   After arriving in Guyana, the woman stayed at a hotel and it was reported that she ran out of money and could not pay her bill.
She subsequently travelled to Berbice, later claiming that she was heading to neighbouring Suriname. It was while heading to Berbice that things started to unravel.
According to a minibus driver, seeing the woman’s condition and coupled with the fact that she did not appear to know where she was going, he decided to take her to the Springlands Police Station.
It was late at night and the woman was the last passenger in his bus.
He asked the police to question the woman.
However this newspaper learnt that the woman refused to cooperate with the police. She walked out of the bus into the dark Corentyne night, leaving her suitcase behind.
“That was the last time we saw her,” a source at the Springlands Police Station told this newspaper.
Somehow, Honore ended up at the New Amsterdam Hospital where she delivered a healthy baby boy.
Kaieteur News was unable to ascertain if she was discharged from the hospital but a few days later she returned to Georgetown and ended up at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Later she was transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital with her newborn baby. However she again refused to cooperate with officials there including social workers.
It was then that the baby was forcibly taken from her amidst her protestations, after it was learnt that she needed psychiatric help.
US court documents have established that Ms. Dellicia Sherrell Honore-Richardson was found to be ‘mentally incompetent.’
Prior to her being admitted to the Georgetown Hospital’s Psychiatric Ward, Honore was given documents to fill out by the US embassy in Georgetown in order to facilitate the process of obtaining an American passport for her baby.
“Once the documents are filled out the baby officially becomes a US citizen. Once all those things are put in place and the doctors are of the view that the mother is okay to travel, she will be allowed to travel,” Benschop told Kaieteur News.

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