As we reported last night, the death of a four year old child in Roaring Creek Village has provoked outrage.
According to a post mortem examination, Hidalia Jomany Maldonado died last week Friday of: (look down) Acute Thrombosis of the heart due to sepsis, chest and abdominal trauma due to battered child syndrome.
That means that the child died from injuries she sustained over a long period of physical abuse.
To even contemplate a small, powerless child taking a beating for so long, and accumulating injuries that would eventually kill her…it's almost unthinkable, like being beaten to death, just very slowly.
And while that's what the doctor says happened - what does the mother say? She told police that the child fell down the stairs - and this afternoon, Monica Bodden tracked down the mother in remote San Marcos Village in the Cayo district. She said it is not a case of abuse:…
Little 4 year old Hidalia died in her mother's arms on Friday morning at her home in Roaring Creek.
Her mother told us she fell from the stairs of their wooden upstairs house on Thursday and
at the time of the fall didn't show any signs of being badly injured.
Ysey Maldonado - Mother
"After she fell everything was ok, she say that she didn't have any pain. She only said that part of her face hurts and I saw that it was a little red, so I say that maybe it's nothing. But at 11pm in the night she start to vomit, she vomited too much time. I said that in the morning I will take her to the hospital to see a doctor because I didn't think that something was really wrong with her."
According to Maldonado, 4 year old Hidalia was still vomiting the following day. That was when she decided to give her a bath and get her ready to go to the hospital.
Ysey Maldonado - Mother
"As I bathe her in the morning, getting her ready to take her to the hospital, she just fainted and then I call the police and I told them that my daughter is dying and I need help now please come. But they take too long to come and I couldn't to anything because I am not a doctor or nurse to help her, I needed somebody to help me at that time. When she was taking the bath, she got weak and she fainted but she was still talking to me, she told me to hug her, she felt bad I guess but I think that if I had waited a little longer from bathing her she would be ok because she was still walking and talking but when I bathe her she just..."
She said - desperately in need of help - she called a taxi cab.
Ysey Maldonado - Mother
"I call a taxi to come and when he comes it was too late she was already dead."
4 year old Hidalia didn't make it. She died around 10 o'clock that morning.
Ysey Maldonado - Mother
"She told me that she had drop from about 5-6 steps from the high house, she say that she slip but she don't know how to say the word correctly, I could understand what she was saying, maybe she trip over a step and that's where she drop."
A Postmortem was conducted on Monday - which concluded that the child died from battered child syndrome.
Monica Bodden
"You say that you haven't had a chance to look at the post mortem but you understand that the doctor mentioned something about a broken rib."
Ysey Maldonado - Mother
"Yes about a broken rib from a long time, that's what they told me, I am not sure because I haven't look at it, I haven't have a chance to look at it but I guess if a kid have a broken rib or something broken a kid would always cry or say that something hurts if it really hurt because if something broke that's not normal in the body, you would still feel pain. That's normal with everybody."
And even though they are speculations going around and evidence- that the 4 year old little girl was abused - her mother strongly denies it.
Ysey Maldonado - Mother
"She was never abused because she is my first kid and I take good care of her and she was a quiet little girl and all of my family could say that she would never give trouble, she would always sit or she have to do something she would never be a rude little girl, she always behaves good."
Monica Bodden
"And your boyfriend never.....?"
Ysey Maldonado - Mother
"No, only to discipline her he would always get a whip and whip her little foot and that's what me and my mom or anybody who has to do it for a kid. A kid always have to learn from their parents and we always have to teach them."
Monica Bodden
"So at no point was she ever abused?"
Ysey Maldonado - Mother
"No, never yet. I know there are laws for that so. I know and everybody knows."
Belmopan Police are awaiting instruction from the DPP to determine what if any charges should be brought.
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