Granny tries to bury grandson herself

The Windhoek City Police had to intervene on Sunday afternoon when a woman believed to be in her 60’s was about to bury a three-year-old grandson in the vicinity of Katutura’s Freedom Square suburb.
After walking from the Windhoek Central hospital she stopped at a house and asked for a spade to dig a trench herself and bury her grandson.

The unidentified woman and boy are from Okalongo constituency in Omusati region. The toddler was transferred to Windhoek Central hospital on August 16.

The boy had to receive urgent medical attention and was admitted to Seven East, room eight of the Windhoek Central Hospital.

The three year old boy belongs to the 60’s year old woman’s daughter who is reportedly in the North.

She could not come with her son to Windhoek as she also has another younger baby to attend to.

Senior Superintendent of City Police and Emergency Management Department Gerry Shikesho said the three-year-old boy was diagnosed with a tumour of the stomach or stomach cancer.

The doctors could not do much at the hospital for the child and instead decided to send both of them back to the North.

Shikesho said the two were discharged and were due back to the North, but were still kept in the room by the nursing staff while waiting for the ambulance.

But the elderly woman instead took the oxygen mask off the boy and walked out with him without the hospital staff noticing.

Shikesho said the woman walked until Kenneth Kaunda Street in Freedom Square and went to a house where she asked for a spade to bury the boy.

The people at the house notified the police about the woman’s intentions.

“It is not clear if the boy died while in hospital or while walking to Freedom square,” he said.

Upon inquiry by the police, the women who appeared to be in a state of confusion and was in tears, said it would be costly for her to transport the dead body to the North. This was why she wanted to bury the child herself.

She added that the coffin and the funeral arrangements in general would be expensive for the family.
The police informed the hospital staff and the woman was taken back to the hospital. She and the dead body will be transported back to the North.

Shikesho said the case needs to be investigated to determine the cause of death.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Services Andrew Ndishishi’s could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Namibia Sun was seeking his official position about why hospital staff had failed to notice the grandmother leaving with her sick grandchild.

In general, stomach cancer is often difficult to detect in the early stages of the disease because it may be diagnosed as something else.

By the time symptoms are correctly diagnosed the cancer often reaches an advanced stage and may spread to other parts of the body.