Harlem toddler drowned, autopsy finds
Aleena Mohamed, the oneyear-old whose body was found in a trench behind her Harlem, West Coast Demerara (WCD) home on Monday afternoon, died from asphyxiation due to drowning, an autopsy yesterday revealed.
The autopsy was conducted yesterday morning by Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh. The incident took place sometime between 5 pm and 6.30 pm on Monday while the child’s mother, Kaishrie Artie Ramchand was preparing to bathe her.
Reports are that as customary, Ramchand took Aleena to the bathroom situated in the backyard.
Whilst there, Ramchand
left the child and went to collect a towel. Upon her return, she noticed that the child was missing.
An alarm was raised and relatives immediately began to search for Aleena. Her body was subsequently found in the trench. She was rushed to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
This newspaper was told that in the backyard, there is a sheep pen which has two gates. One of the gates leads to a trench. It is suspected that the child ventured out of the yard and fell into the trench. Ramchand had told Stabroek
News that the incident occurred in a short span of time. “By time I go upstairs for this towel and come back, I couldn’t see back Aleena. Not even five minutes I didn’t take,” she had said. She added that after she couldn’t find Aleena, she began to search around the yard. “I start searching all over the yard because normally I know she does go by the flower tree and pick the flowers but I couldn’t see her anywhere,” Ramchand noted.
By this time, she said her husband arrived home from work and she related to him what had happened. It was Aleena’s father and other relatives who made the gruesome discovery.