CEBU, Philippines - A one-year-old girl drowned in a pail of water, her head at the bottom, inside their comfort room in Sitio Quasi, Barangay Tuyom, Carcar City.
The family of Jamaica Ombog still could not believe the accident that took her life as everyone else was busy doing other things.
Her grandmother, 50-year-old Leonora Nabua, found her upside-down inside a container of water at their comfort room last Sunday afternoon. She was rushed to the Carcar City District Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival by the attending physician, Dr. Allan Mercado.
Leonora narrated that she left Jamaica to the care of her daughter Janice while she accompanied 20-year-old Margie, the mother of Jamaica, to look for mansanitas, a local fruit-bearing tree.
“Ang dahon ihampol man to aron tambal ug panuhot,” Leonora said, adding that Margie is to give birth to another child this March. (We wanted to gather some leaves to treat her gas pains.)
Leonora said she heard the loud cry of a child but she ignored it, thinking that Janice was taking care of Jamaica.
Janice, for her part, said she put the girl at the terrace while switching on the television. She just came home at that time from Cebu Mitsumi Inc. in Danao City where she works.
At around 5:00 in the afternoon, Jesus, the grandfather, noticed the girl’s absence and asked Leonora about it.
Leonora said it was as if somebody pulled her towards the comfort room. There she found Jamaica inside a container of water.
“Pagsapwang nako nilungay na man wa gyud ko magtuo nga maingon adto,” he told reporters. (She was already lifeless when I carried her. We did not expect this to happen.)
Michael, the father, was not in the house as he is working as a baker in Toledo City. – (FREEMAN)