Sangre Grande woman thanks cops for rushing daughter to hospital

While it was not the birthday she anticipated, a Sangre Grande woman is thanking two police officers for giving her one of the best presents ever, when they rushed her four-year-old daughter Samyiah Miracle Ramkissoon, who was suffering with seizures, to the hospital on the morning of her 31st birthday on January 5.

The officers' quick response attracted widespread praise from the public on social media when the incident was published on the official police Facebook page.

When contacted by Newsday on Friday last week, Shivon Scipio recalled the morning when little Samyiah started experiencing the seizures.

Scipio said the incident happened when her daughter woke her up for a birthday hug.

She said she first noticed something was wrong when Samyiah sounded congested.

"She told me 'Mommy I'm good,' and that's how I know something is wrong, she doesn't want me to worry, so she says she is good.

"Whenever she has a seizure she turns her head to the left, and I noticed that happened and she can't control her body. Then she started vomiting."

While she did not want to panic, Scipio said she quickly packed a bag and called an ambulance for help. She was told the nearest ambulance was in Port of Spain.

Scipio then went with her daughter to a worker at a nearby property to ask for help in getting them to the hospital.

While leaving the street, she noticed a passing police car. The officers, PC Alister David and WPC Merissa Wright-Garib, just finished night-shift duties that morning and were on their way to Port of Spain on assignment when they saw the driver of the car with Scipio and her daughter flagging them down.

This happened on the Cunapo Main Road, Sangre Grande, near the SWAHA Hindu College, as parents dropped their children off to school leading to heavy congestion.

While the officers were able to escort Scipio and Samyiah for some distance, they quickly realised the driver was having trouble keeping up.

When contacted for comment, David said he made a decision to take mother and daughter in the police car.

"I stopped and told him, 'Hear what, let the mother and the child come in the (police) car so we can reach faster,'

"I've had to drive through traffic to respond to other incidents, but never with a child in the same vehicle. So seeing how the mother was reacting, seeing how the child was unresponsive, the only thing on my mind was to get to the hospital.

"My daughter is two years old, so yeah. You think about your own children in a situation like that."

Scipio praised David's driving skills, noting that he was able to safely maneuvre in and out of traffic while taking them to the hospital.

"Sometimes someone would be driving and you would feel a little frightened, it wasn't like that with him.

"They (the officers) were asking questions, making sure we were okay, and I was really comfortable with the driver. He was doing that really good. He made sure we got there in no time."

Scipio also thanked the doctors and staff at the Sangre Grande Hospital for their quick response in treating Samyiah, as the examination room became so filled with doctors it was difficult for her to find space to stand.

She said even after getting to the hospital, David and Wright-Garib stayed with her and continued to check in on her and Samyiah that afternoon and onwards.

"They might look at it as something simple, just giving a child a drop to the hospital. For me it was so much more because her oxygen was low and her heart rate was high.

"I am grateful because there were times I tried stopping police and they didn't stop, but these two officers... sometimes you just feel like there are angels among us.

"That's what the experience was like.

"I am grateful and so is Samyiah."

When contacted, Wright-Garib said while she appreciated all the thanks she and David received from the public, it was part of her duty.

She also thanked the doctors and even other drivers that morning for their consideration in pulling to the side of the street so they could get to the hospital.

She said these gestures, while simple, were important and hoped the sense of community could continue to help others.

"I think this is something that we need to kind of come back to – first of all God, and this simple respect, this love and benevolence, this sense of community.

"Anything that happens it's not one person alone. Whether good or bad, it comes back to the community.

"The doctors and nurses, the custodians at the hospital, even the drivers who would have pulled to the side of the road.

"Even the driver of the van who I later found out had no relation to the girl, he was willing to lend assistance so it's really a community thing people came forward to render assistance and aid so it's really community it all comes down to love."

Scipio said Samyiah was discharged from the hospital the following evening, when she was well enough to walk, and is at home recuperating.