body-container-line-1
02.06.2016 Crime & Punishment

Toddler Dies In School Mysteriously Caregivers Arrested

02.06.2016 LISTEN
By Daily Guide

The family of a one-year-old baby girl is crying foul about the mysterious death of the baby at school.

The deceased, Aurelia Nana Akua Arkoh,  was allegedly hit by a student mattress, leading to her untimely death at Globen School located at Abeka Lapaz last Friday noon.

Her death is causing fear and panic to parents whose wards are enrolled in the school that has been in existence for the past 20 years and has a student population of over 500 pupils including toddlers.

The parents are wondering how the falling of a student's mattress could cause the death of a child.

Aggrieved father of Aurelia Arkoh, Mr Barvel Arkoh, in a narration, said his daughter who was only one year one month old was enrolled in the school in January this year.

“On Friday, May 27, 2016, we bathed Aurelia, who was very strong and healthy, and gave her some food before taking her to school.

“Around 12:30pm that fateful day, I received a telephone call from authorities of the school that a mattress fell on my daughter, injuring her in the process, and so they were taking her to Lapaz Community Hospital and needed my presence (sic),” he told DAILY GUIDE.

globen-school-located-at-abeka-lapaz

Globen School located at Abeka Lapaz
Mr Arkoh said he rushed to the hospital but on arrival, he was told the girl had died.

Medical officers reportedly pronounced the girl dead on arrival at the hospital.

Mr Arkoh said when he enquired from the teachers how the mattress fell on his daughter, he was told the children were playing with the mattresses while the teachers were at the other side of the room and suddenly they saw Aurelia lying underneath one of the mattresses and crying.

When they lifted her up, they saw blood oozing from her nostrils and so they immediately rushed her to the Lapaz Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

“The medical officers immediately asked us to report the matter to the police before taking the body to the morgue and so the matter was reported to the Tesano police for investigations to be conducted into it.

“I am really surprised that a mere mattress could fall on a human being and cause her death,” he lamented.

The grieving father, who claimed the deceased was his only child, said the body had since been deposited at the police hospital pending autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Arrest
Meanwhile, DSP Edward Tetteh, the Tesano District Police Commander, when contacted, said two female teachers of the school, aged 49 and 50 years, who are caregivers of the children at the school, had been arrested to assist the police to investigate the matter.

He said the police were doing the best to get a judge to sign a corona's form for autopsy to be conducted on the body to determine the cause of death before the suspects arrested could be charged with murder.

“Due to the strike action by the Judicial Service Workers, court is not sitting but we will arrange for a judge to sign the corona's report so that the autopsy can be done immediately before the body will be released to the family for burial,” he said.

The two women have provisionally been charged with negligently causing harm and abandonment of an infant and will be taken to court while the autopsy is done.

By Linda Tenyah- Ayettey
([email protected])

body-container-line