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Six-year-old child dies after swallowing thumbtack at Crane school
Dead: Six-year-old Mekhi Rodrigues (Six-year-old child dies after swallowing thumbtack at Crane school)
kaieteur News- A six-year-old boy lost his life tragically on Tuesday after swallowing a thumbtack at a private preschool located at Crane, West Coast Demerara (WCD).
The incident reportedly occurred around 10:30hrs.
The deceased has been identified as Mekhi Rodrigues of La Parfaite Harmonie, WBD, the son of Orin and Rebekha Rodrigues.
It is reported that surveillance cameras in the classroom captured the incident; however, the footage has not been made available to this publication. This has led to differing accounts from the child’s parents and the school’s lawyer. Efforts to contact the school for further comments were unsuccessful.
According to Attorney-at-law Yuborn Allicock, who spoke with Kaieteur News on behalf of the school said that Mekhi had gone to the washroom and swallowed a tack.
“He ran out in a frantic state, grabbed his bottle, and ran to the teacher. She immediately attended to him, and after realizing he was throwing himself down in a frantic state, she picked him up and took him to the hospital—all of this was done in under four minutes. He was alive at the hospital for over 35 minutes,” Allicock explained.
However, Mekhi’s father shared a different perspective. He claimed to have viewed a 46-minute video that indicated the teacher did not attend to his son immediately.
“My son ran to the teacher after he swallowed it to show that he had a problem breathing, and she told him to go back and sit down. He ran back to the teacher again, and she was still pushing him away. Then my son tried to open his water bottle but was unable to do so. The video shows my son fighting for breath. He started jumping up, and that’s when the teacher ran to him and rubbed his back,” he recounted.
The father stated that after the principal was informed, Mekhi was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, commonly known as the ‘Best Hospital’ at Vreed-en-Hoop, WCD, but he lamented, “By the time he got there, my son was already dead.”
An autopsy later revealed that a thumbtack was lodged in Mekhi’s throat, leading to suffocation.
The father also expressed frustration over the teacher’s inaction, saying, “From 11:00 to 11:43, the teacher paid no mind to my son. He was up and walking around, doing whatever he wanted.”
He recounted the harrowing experience of discovering his son’s death: “I was home when my wife called to tell me to go to the hospital because something happened to Mekhi. I left right away. When I arrived at the emergency room, I saw seven to eight people, including doctors. Two females were pumping his chest, one was giving him something, one put a tube down his throat, and another was giving him oxygen.”
Orin was informed by a doctor that Mekhi arrived at the hospital with no heartbeat. “They tried to get a pulse and revive him for at least ten minutes. When ten minutes passed with no response, they had to declare him dead. I prayed and cried, but the doctor eventually told me my son was dead. I looked at my son and saw them taking down the machines.”
The family believes that Mekhi could have been saved with more timely attention from the staff.
“It is very heart breaking. If she had paid attention to my son, he could have been alive,” the emotional father lamented.
Mekhi Rodrigues was described by his family as a hyper and joyful child, often considered the life of the party.
The Guyana Police Force (GPF) is yet to release a statement on the matter.
(Six-year-old child dies after swallowing thumbtack at Crane school)
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