Latest update December 4th, 2024 2:40 AM
CC&PA probing if dead teenage mother’s pregnancies were reported
The Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) has taken a vested interest in the reports of the death of 17-year-old mother Nikacia Allen, who passed away at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) two Sundays ago. Allen died a month after giving birth to her third child at the Public hospital. She had given birth on all three occasions by way of Caesarean Section.
CC&PA Director,
Ann Greene
The young woman’s mother, Patricia Allen, had brought the incident to the attention of the media last week and had shared her suspicion that her daughter’s death was as a result of negligence on the part of health care workers who attended to her.
But following reports of the teenage mother’s demise, which not only revealed that her delivery was a potential risk, it was also brought to light that she had given birth to her first child at the age of 13.
Nikacia Allen’s eldest child is more than four years old, her second child is just over two years old and her youngest is just over one month old. CC&PA as a result took keen notice of the case.
This is in light of the fact that the age of consent in Guyana is 16 years, thus an adult found to be engaged in sexual intercourse with a child could be prosecuted.
Moreover, Head of CC&PA, Ms Ann Greene, said yesterday that she was alarmed when she saw the reports in the daily newspapers of the now dead teenager being a mother of three. In fact, she told this publication that “I have my officers checking if we had this matter…I’d read in one of the newspapers that she had spoken with a Welfare Officer…there are Welfare Officers at the Georgetown Hospital and I wonder who is the Welfare Officer because I personally cannot remember dealing with such an issue but I am asking my staff to check on it to see our records if we had any reports.”
But according to Greene, CC&PA cannot work in isolation. “What normally happens is that the health people would report to us; we have got to get the information. So this child protection is a shared responsibility, everybody has to take responsibility and all the systems must work and that is the only way that we can share collective responsibility for children to get the holistic care…”
“There has to be a lot of referrals. We must know if one area dealt with a child like that, it must be referred…so we have to check if all of the systems were working,” asserted Greene who disclosed that an earnest investigation has been launched into the Nikacia Allen case.
Greene disclosed too that all of the matters of underage pregnancy that gain the attention of the CC&PA are always reported to the Police Force. “If a child under the age of 16 is having sexual relationships or even if she gets pregnant, and that is a sure sign that she was having sexual relationships and a crime has been committed, the police has to get involved. Any report of sexual abuse of a child, we call in the police,” asserted the CC&PA Director.
Greene was however unable to disclose yesterday whether an investigation into the matter at hand would yield any prosecution. “This matter is a little technical because in this case, the victim is dead but once we find that this matter was reported to us we are obligated to report it to the police so that they can investigate it…” disclosed Greene yesterday.
In fact she related that “we have several matters still in the investigative state or awaiting their day in court but I don’t want to pronounce on this particular matter because we are still investigating…I don’t want to pronounce on it any further until I get my information.”
The CC&PA’s investigation into the matter comes even as Patricia Allen and Eric Williams (mother and stepfather of the dead girl) are calling for the matter to be put to rest.
According to Williams, “we want this thing to come to an end…we want it out of the media.” The man expressed frustration over the fact that a post mortem examination into his stepdaughter’s death has been delayed for far too long.
“I don’t want this thing to be delaying and delaying all the time,” said Williams as he disclosed that it is expected that the PM will finally be conducted today and burial will occur tomorrow. “This girl actually punish one whole month (in the hospital) and then when she dead she still punishing, it’s best that we call off everything and just put her to rest…we don’t have money for a private post mortem…so we might as well call it off…let everything dead and done; no more complaining,” added Williams.
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